


Sparks in the Night

by Sir_Nerdalot



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura is the red paladin for a bit, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cute Keith, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Keith (Voltron) has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Lance (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron) Angst, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Slave Keith, Slavery, Slow Burn, Smart Keith
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-01-29 21:36:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 16
Words: 25,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12639633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sir_Nerdalot/pseuds/Sir_Nerdalot
Summary: Voltron attacks a Galra ship and Lance finds someone locked in a cell, bleeding and beaten. He couldn't just leave him to rot so he takes him to the Castle of Lions. How will the team act to having a traumatized half-galra on their ship?





	1. I Just Know

Lance felt the ship shake. The metal was bending and warping with the attack Pidge was sending their way. Lance was running through the halls, he had opted to go in and retrieve the information they were there to get. With the disc slipped safely into his armor, all Lance had to do was run back to his lion. The only problem was... well... he was lost. Hopefully, he'd be able to find a nice galra and ask for directions since the comms were cut off. He laughed quietly to himself, yeah probably not.

He looked at his surroundings, he was in some abandoned cell block. There were plenty of rusty old bars and dirt, it looked like no one had been down here for a long time. He continued running until he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He pulled out his bayard and held it up. Ready to shoot anything that crossed his path. Lance located the source of the movement and edged a bit closer to it. It was inside a cell, a very disgusting smelling cell. A stank of blood and sex and- ugh. What could possibly survive living down here? 

Lance jumped as the lump moved again. He walked to it and saw pale skin. Human? What would a human be doing here? But then he saw huge wolf-like ears. What was this? A human-galra hybrid?

It rolled over, naked, for one, and most definitely male. Blood and semen covered his back. It's eyes were open but blank. Almost as if he wasn't really awake yet.

"Hey, buddy. I'm going to get you out of here, alright?" Lance got the response he expected, which was absolutely nothing. "I'm going to pick you up now." He leaned down and the minute his hands touched the boys back the boy freaked out.

He began screaming and crying in choppy english as if he wasn't practiced.. "No no no no no. Master, too much. No master." 

Lance quickly pulled his hands back. "It's okay. I'm not here to hurt you. I want to take you away from here." 

The boy whimpered and Lance heard his stomach rumble. Reaching slowly into a slot in his armor he pulled out a meal bar. He always had one on him, just in case. "Hey, you're hungry. Here you go. It's not the best but it'll get the job done." He tried to hand the boy the bar but all he got was a suspicious look. "It's good. Here, I'll eat a little bit." He brought the bar to his mouth and bit off a small chunk. Then he handed it to the boy.

The boy reluctantly took it and began eating it ferociously. Lance chuckled, "I see you're hungry. I'm Lance." He pointed to himself, "What's your name?" 

The boy tried to speak but Lance figured he didn't know how to say may words other than cries for mercy. "K--thhhh." Came a grunted reply. "K-K-ff." 

Lance tilted his head to the side, "Do you know your name?"

"No no no!" The boy shook his head. "No!" Well the boy certainly knew how to say no.

"Well, I guess I can call you Keith. That's kinda what it sounded like." Lance smiled softly, "Keith suits you." He reached out slowly, "Now, we need to leave, and soon. Can I pick you up now?"

The boy, now named Keith, shook his head, "No!" 

Lance frowned in frustration, "Keith, I don't know what to do then. I need to leave and I can't just ditch you here!" Keith flinched back and tears leaked down his face. "I'm sorry, Keith. I didn't mean to yell. But we need to go and I like you, kid. I can't leave you here. Please, let me get you to safety."

Keith wiped tears off of his face, smearing dirt and blood around. Keith nodded and tried to speak.

"Yes." Lance smiled, "Say, yes."

"Y-Yuh. Y-uhs. Y-Y-Yeh. Y-Yes." Keith grumbled out. His ears flickered to the side and his eyes widened in fear. "Out. Out!"

Lance scooped Keith up and began running just as he heard heavy galra footsteps pounding down the hall. "Where are you, slut?!" Keith flinched in his grasp, "It's your lucky day! You're- Where is he?!"

Lance ran a little faster, heart pounding so hard he could hear it. "Keith, it's going to be okay." 

The galra noticed him, "You there! Put it down!"

He could see his lion! He was so close! Then he heard a bang and prepared for pain. A scream followed but no pain. Then he realized there was more blood on Keith than there had been before. "Keith? Oh god. Okay. Um, this is bad." He dove into his lion, securing Keith in his lap he took off.

"Lance, Lance are you there?" Came Shiro's concerned voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I also, um, got a friend." Lance grunted, repositioning Keith on his lap.

"Wait, what?" Shiro asked. 

"Lance," Allura said, warning in her voice.

"He was hurt and they were going to kill him. They raped him, he hardly knows how to speak. I had to save him, Allura." Lance argued. Keith shifted and moaned on his lap, blood leaked sluggishly onto his chair. "I need a pod ready, Coran."

"It's all ready." Coran responded.

"Thanks, I'm going to be running there the minute we land." Lance told them. And that's what he did. They landed and Lance ran faster than he had ever run. He and Coran got Keith dressed in the suit and put him into the pod.

Allura spoke up, "So... You brought a galra onto this ship."

"Half galra! Half!" Lance yelled, "And he was hurt! What would you have done!? Left him there? To be beaten and tortured and raped and treated like a slave! Allura, I get that you hate the galra and that justified, but hating Keith is not."

"You gave him a name?" Allura asked, exasperated. "You can't get attached to him, Lance. I understand why you saved him and I'll make sure we drop him off on a very nice planet."

Lance practically growled and in the background Pidge whispered, "Oooohhhhh shit."

An ice cold glare in his eyes, Lance glared at Allura, "We are not going to drop him of on some planet. I'm not going to abandon him. We have plenty of rooms here and if you don't trust him with his own room then he can room with me. He trusts me, I think, and I'm not going to break that trust. We're Voltron, and I thought we saved people from the galra."

Allura opened her mouth but Shiro stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Alright Lance. We trust you and if you want to keep, um, Keith, right?" Lance nodded, "If you want to take care of Keith then we'll let you, and we'll help you. Keith is a part of our family now."

Lance smiled, "Thank you. He's not dangerous, he's just scared. Keith is nice."

"Didn't you only talk to him for like ten minutes?" Pidge asked.

"Shut up, Pidge. He's nice." Lance laughed, "Some things I just know."

Lance looked up at Keith, his eyes shut almost peacefully, "I just know this is going to be great."


	2. Champions

Lance hardly ever left Keith's side. Pidge came often to check on Lance and study Keith a little bit. She was super fascinated by the idea of a half galra half human hybrid. When Keith woke up she said she'd ask him about studying him a bit more. Lance made her promise not to invade Keith's privacy too much. Hunk checked on him at least three times a day to feed him and he also popped in a few more times every day to say hi and talk to Lance a little bit. Shiro didn't come in as much but he did come in a little. Coran came in to check on Keith but he was busy doing other things. And Allura... Allura still hadn't warmed up to Keith and probably wouldn't for quite a bit.

But Lance never left. Well, he left to go to the bathroom and shower and stuff but he didn't waste any time. He didn't even do his face routine, no mask or lotion or herbal steams. None of that. He didn't want to miss Keith waking up.

About a week after being put in the pod, Keith woke up.

Lance immediately took notice when the pod opened up and a tired Keith stumbled out. He almost fell forward but Lance caught him. Keith flailed until he knew it was Lance then he just fell limp and let Lance hold him. 

Lance was a little surprised by how much Keith already trusted him. He probably latched onto him because he was most likely the first person to show him kindness but Lance wasn't about to complain. Of course, Pidge chose that moment to walk in. Keith jumped super high and clawed into Lance's back. Grabbing a hold of his jacket and making sure he was positioned behind Lance. 

"Keith, Keith it's okay. This is Pidge, she's my friend. She won't hurt you." He ensured Keith.

Keith clung on tighter and Pidge smiled, "Hey Keith. I've heard a lot about you. I'm Pidge and I'm basically a genius. Look at this," she pulled out a small cube and Keith tensed up then she clicked a button and gorgeous lights streamed out. They made shapes of animals and stuff, animals that Keith had probably never seen before. Keith slipped off of Lance's back and slowly crawled toward the cube which Pidge placed on the table. His tail swished as he stared at it and he brought his hand up to it. Then he gently nudged it off the table down to the ground with a crash. He looked up at them in fear but Pidge just laughed and put it on the table again, "You really are just like a cat."

Keith smiled a little and whacked it off the table again. Pidge laughed and put it back on an even higher table allowing Keith to knock it off with a louder crash. Lance smiled as he watched. When Keith got tired, which was very quickly due to the fact the he probably wasn't used to "exercising," they sat on the floor, Keith curled up in Lance's lap and Pidge across from them.

Every time Pidge made a move or Lance shifted Keith would flinch but he seemed to be happy with the steady drone of conversation that he couldn't understand happening above him. Keith drifted off after about an hour and Shiro walked in, which immediately woke Keith up. Shiro smiled down at Keith and said, "Hi, I'm Shiro, it's nice to meet you."

Keith jumped up and onto Shiro, wrapping his arms around Shiro's neck, "Cha-piom! Cha-pion!" 

Shiro coughed, "What? How do you know that?"

Keith detangled himself from Shiro and latched back onto Lance. "-Ance, Cha-pion."

"Yeah, Keith, I know Lance. We're friends." Shiro smiled, "Do you know me?"

Keith nodded, he pointed at Shiro and said, "Cha-pion." 

"No, I'm Shiro now. Did you know me on the ship?" Shiro asked, he was eager to learn anything about his past.

The confusion on Keith's face grew as the time passed, "No Cha-pion?" Keith looked up at Lance, "No Cha-pion? Who?"

"I'm Shiro. Apparently I was called the Champion when I was being held by the galra but I can't remember my time there so anything you know would be great. But if you don't want to do that it's fine." Shiro informed him.

"Cha-pion fr-end teak tea-ch talk." Keith told them.

Lance's eyes widened along with Pidge's and Shiro's, "So, he taught you how to speak?"

"Yes." Keith nodded. "Cha-pion fr-end buh Cha-pion leaf and no come back." Keith got sad really quickly after that and stopped talking no matter how much they tried to get him to engage in any sort of conversation. He just closed up, he wouldn't let anyone, not even Lance. He curled up in a little ball in the corner and got that blank look in his eyes.

Lance looked up at the others and said, "Guys, can you leave? Keith needs to be alone for a bit. I might try to get us to my room so please don't knock on either of those for a while, okay?"

They nodded and left, "We'll tell the others," Shiro smiled at Lance then at Keith.

When they were alone, Lance nudged over slowly. "Keith, I'm sorry we pushed you. We shouldn't've done that. We don't need to see anyone for a little bit. You met a lot of people already and I'm sorry for stressing you out. Can I take you to a more comfortable place so you won't hurt your back?"

Keith nodded and let Lance lift him and take him to his room. Lance blushed when he saw the state of his room, it was a mess. He hadn't cleaned it for a little bit because he was feeling lazy before the mission where he found Keith. He gently put Keith down in his unmade bed and piled blanket on top of him. 

Whenever Lance was feeling down he liked to bury himself in blanket and just get lost in the warmth. Keith seemed to like it too. His ears flickered and he yawned. "-Ance nice."

Keith smiled up at him and Lance felt a warm feeling. Despite all the galra put him through, Keith still maintained a beautiful innocence that not many had. He was oddly trusting and adorable and generally amazing. As Keith fell asleep, Lance tried to figure out what he was going to do. He couldn't leave Keith. Not so early in his rescue. But if Voltron needed him he needed to be prepared to go at a moments notice.

But Keith. Keith needed him to be there. He already seemingly had abandonment issues and Lance didn't even want to risk it. Keith was his friend and that would never, ever change. And friends help other friends.

After thinking a little more Lance eventually fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this chapter! Keith is going to be a bit OOC but as he gets more comfortable he'll get to be more "Keith." Comments are super amazing and it'll be great if you leave some down below! I'm going to try to get another update out soon!


	3. Explosions! of juice

Keith hadn't spoken after the "champion" incident took place. He was still laying in the bed, the blankets were piled around him and Lance's jacket rested on his shoulders. Lance didn't let the absence of response stop his unending speaking. He told Keith all about Earth and his family, all the dumb, embarrassing stories that he'd never even told Hunk. Lance told Keith about how his first kiss was to his cousin, accidental of course. He was pretty drunk and didn't realize it was his cousin till the next morning. Oh god, and the time he peed his pants in the eighth grade on the bus because he was laughing too hard.

Despite his spilling of secret, Keith never even blinked an eye. He just stared at him, tail occasionally swishing and ears flicking to any odd sound. His jaggedly cut, long black almost purple hair spilled over his shoulders and onto Lance's jacket. 

They had been sitting there for at least ten hours, eight of those hours were spent sleeping though. Lance was starving and he had to assume that Keith was as well. He couldn't figure out whether or not he should leave Keith to bring food to him or take Keith out and to the kitchen. He didn't want to potentially scare Keith by leaving him but he also didn't want to potentially overwhelm Keith by the possibility of more interaction.

Keith stomach gurgled and he looked to Lance's pocket where, on his armor, he kept the meal bar. "I don't have any of that on me right now. I'm hungry too but in order to eat we need to leave and go to the kitchen. That... That might mean you'll see people who will try to talk to you."

Keith's ear went back and he shook, "Hey, hey, hey. We don't need to go if you don't want to... but... if you want food we either need to go or I need to go to get food to bring back."

"NO!" Keith yelled at him at that idea, leaping out of the bed and attaching to Lance's arm. "You stay!"

"Okay, Keith, okay. Then we both need to go to the kitchen. My friends turned off the comms in my room so we wouldn't be bothered. I can't call them to bring us food and you need food." Keith humphed and looked at the ground, "Alright, I need food."

Keith scowled and nodded, he got into a piggyback position with his arms wrapped around Lance's neck. Lance smiled and made their way to the kitchen. The farther away they got, the more scared Keith got. His grip got tighter, causing Lance to choke and pry his arms off of his neck a little bit. Lance walked into the kitchen and to his relief saw it was empty, "This is the kitchen where the food is stored. If I'm ever not here for any reason, you can come here to get food."

Keith paled, "-Ance, leaf?"

Lance put Keith down on a chair and looked him dead in the eye, "Because I'm in Voltron I'll have to leave every now and then, but I'll always come back, don't you worry. I'm never going to abandon you. Ever. You got that?"

Keith nodded, "Yes, -ance."

"Good. Now, lets eat some food!" Lance cheered, pumping his fists as he walked to the cupboard.

Keith watched in fascination as Lace rustled around, looking for anything to feed Keith that wasn't green food goop. He wanted to feed Keith something good like...! The cookies that Hunk baked a while back using weird, earth-like ingredients he found at an alien mall. They were pretty good and almost tasted like sugar cookies! Keith would love them!

Then Lance realized that he couldn't just pump sugar into Keith, someone who was not used to eating anything. He grabbed some fruit and "bread" for Keith to eat before the cookies. Shuffling over with piles of food in his arms, Lance took a seat next to Keith. He was going to sit across from him but Keith simply would not let him. Lance guessed Keith thought across was too far away.

Keith seemed to be a bit confused over the fruit though he was very used to the bread thing. After he breathed in the bread and Lance finished his food, he picked up the fruit. The best way to describe it would be a sort of citrus but it tasted salty and sweet. It was pretty great. Keith poked it and was about to take a huge bit out of the peel when Lance stopped him.

"Let me help." Lance laughed. He took the fruit and pealed it slowly so Keith could see it and learn. When he got the fruit part out he tried to get Keith to take apart the segments inside. "Do you want me to feed you or something?" Lance chuckled. Keith nodded so Lance broke apart the segments and popped one in Keith's mouth.

Keith just held it in his mouth for a second, confusion showed on his face. Lance mimed biting down so Keith copied him. It was easy to tell when the juice burst out because Keith's eyes widened and he put his hands over his mouth. "Wha-?" He gasped once he swallowed it.

Lance gulped, did Keith hate it? Did he make a mistake? "Did you-?"

"Mo!" Keith yelled, clapping and jumping like a little kid. "Mo! Mo!" He opened his mouth and patiently waited for Lance to drop another one in.

Lance just sat there, frozen for a second. "Oh yeah! Okay!" He put another one in Keith's mouth and smiled as he jumped around in happiness. "I'm glad you like it, Keith."

"-Ike it! Mo!" 

And they just sat there for a bit, undisturbed. Lance feeding Keith bits of fruit and Keith jumping and smiling.

Nothing had ever been better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This bit was super fluffy and I hope you liked it! I also hope you had a great day! Make sure you leave a comment down below, they are amazing and appreciated!


	4. Chapter 4

After they had eaten they returned to the bedroom. Keith was tired again, so much activity in one day would do that to someone that stayed in conditions like Keith's. Lance was... less so. He'd just slept for a while and would probably be good for quite a bit. The moment his head hit the pillow Keith fell into a deep sleep, his breaths coming slower and evening out. The stress that generally was smacked on that pale face had melted away leaving the relaxed boy beneath.

Lance was in it deep. This boy would be the death of him. 

About an hour into Keith's slumber he started whimpering. Lance instantly dropped the book he had been reading and stood up. "Keith?" He whispered. Keith let out a wet sob, his eyes shutting tighter as the dream continued. Lance could hear the faint "no"s falling from Keith's lips, terror dripping from each one. "Keith?"

Lance didn't know what to do. Should he wake Keith up or let him sleep through it? Is it worse to wake him from a nightmare? Lance couldn't let Keith suffer. Keith was out of that hell hole and Lance wished he could free Keith from his own mind. He laid one hand gently down on Keith's shoulder. Keith gasped, pulling back and curling up into a ball against the corner of the bed. "Keith, it's okay. It's just me. You were having a nightmare, I'm sorry I scared you."

Keith didn't stop shaking but he did turn his head to look at Lance. 

"I wish you didn't have these nightmares or I could do something. You know what, maybe Coran has some weird Altean nightmare prevention stuff that we could use!" Keith flinched so Lance lowered his voice, "Sorry." He flushed. "Coran does know a lot and I'm sure he'll have something helpful." Lance kept droning on because conversation seemed to calm Keith.

Slowly but surely Keith uncurled and migrated back over to the edge of the bed, back to Lance. His purple eye were wide where they stared up at him. Ears twitching in every direction. "Coran is always spouting off these weird phrases. Well, I'm sure they're not too weird for people who know things about space out here but for us they were, phew, right over our heads!" Lance laughed, "We'll be in the middle of a fight and he'll yell into our comms, 'You are speeding around faster than a floopy doop kos,' or something. I never get it but we just go along with it." Lance glanced over at Keith who was smiling a little bit, well, the corners of his lips were quirked up a tad bit.

Keith cocked his head to the side when Lance said, "My family would like you a lot." Lance grinned, "I have a really big family down in Cuba. That's a place on Earth. Mi mama always gets so happy whenever she had someone else to dote on. And mi papa loves everyone. In my town everyone knew papa, he's a real people person. My family were always so supportive. They encouraged my education and my goal to go to the Garrison." Lance was struck with homesickness, his parents must be so concerned, "Yeah, when we get back to Earth I'm definitely taking you to see them."

Keith gasped, "I go eart?"

Lance smiled and nodded, "Of course! After this is all over I'm going back, at least for a bit, and I'm not going to leave you." Keith smiled and rested his hand on Lance's, "I promised you, remember? I'll never leave you unless you want me to."

"I no wan! I nev wan!" Keith yelled, fingers digging into Lance's arm. "-Ance stay!"

"Okay, okay! Gosh, I got it!" Lance laughed, "I'll stay! I won't leave you Keith!"

Keith smiled and nodded, "-Ance no leaf!"

. . . . . . . . .

Shiro was restless. Keith knew him before? Keith knew about his missing past? Keith was the key to figuring out what happened while he was a prisoner. Well, at least for a bit of it. 

Guilt gnawed at his mind, he abandoned Keith there. He probably didn't have a choice in the matter at least that's what Shiro hoped. God, if Shiro escaped and left Keith to rot... He'd never be able to look at himself in the same way.

Shiro didn't want to scare Keith again. In addition to this, he truly would want a friendship with Keith. Lance is practically in love with the fluffy tailed boy. That determined look in his eye when he was talking to Allura and the affection he showed when Shiro walked into the med room, it was magical. It was obvious, Lance wasn't going to let Keith feel bad and if Shiro scared Keith Lance certainly would prevent their interaction for quite a bit. 

Pidge seemed to like Keith and Keith seemed to like her as well. After Lance kicked them out Pidge began making all sorts of little entertaining doodads. 

Knocking gently on her door, Shiro walked into Pidge's little construction room thing. Shiro was amazed by everything in there. Matt had mentioned to Shiro that his little sister was a genius and Shiro had witnessed Pidge's brains in action but she never ceased to amaze him. "What are you working on, Pidge?"

"Ah!" Pidge jumped and turned to see Shiro standing there. "When did you get in?"

"Just a few seconds ago. I knocked." Shiro explained.

"God, Shiro! I don't hear things when I'm working in here! Don't scare me like that!" Pidge yelled at him.

Shiro flushed, "Sorry." He murmured.

"Good! Well, since you asked, I'm working on stuff to distract Keith when we inevitably have to leave to go fight in a battle. He's going to be freaked out when Lance has to go and whatever I can do to take his mind off that, I'll do." Pidge told him.

Shiro hadn't really thought about that. Keith was a long way from ready to be left and Zarkon wouldn't rest. Lance is needed to form Voltron... 

"Hey, you know I had this idea but I wasn't sure if I should do it."

Shiro raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Maybe," Pidge turned her chair to face Shiro, in Pidge's own words 'swivel chairs are amazing' and apparently universal, "we could install a temporary chair in Lance's lion so Keith could stay with Lance for a bit before he gets used to this." She saw Shiro's doubtful expression, "We could put in a ton of safety measures, like maybe even more than needed. I have this idea of a protective casing that would be expelled upon crash with a planet's surface that would save him. Also, different ones for other potentially harmful situations like galra gun attack or simple bumps. Stuff dependent on level of danger, ya know. I just don't want Keith to be scared."

"Pidge," Shiro sighed, "I get it. But we don't know how he'd react to being in a battle like that. We can try, with Lance's okay. Alright? These are some really great ideas though and I think Keith would really appreciate that."

Pidge smiled a bit, "Yeah. I just want to be able to help him. I wish he wasn't so scared of us."

"Me too." Shiro murmured as he walked out the door, "Me too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Sorry I haven't posted in so long homework and just general school related stress has been building. AP classes can be a bit killer hahaha... Yeah, anyway, I've got my big speech and essay for my lit class over with so I might have more free time to work on this fanfic. My other classes seem to have calmed down on the work load for now so that also helps. I really hope you liked this chapter! Comments are very appreciated and I always love seeing them!


	5. Chapter 5

KE2603- no, he was called Keith now. Keith was... not used to that. He was not used to this at all. His Lance wasn't like anyone (except maybe Champion) he'd ever seen before. His Lance was nice to him, his Lance gave Keith things like good food and a bed! His Lance promised he wouldn't leave. He liked his Lance. Despite how much he liked this place he couldn't trust it yet. 

His Lance was perfect and would never ever hurt Keith but Keith wasn't sure about the other ones. The small one with the glass on her face was kind. She gave him a little light box to throw around. Keith had an affinity for knocking things off of other things. He really, really enjoyed that! The not-Champion, Shiro, spoke in a calm voice but he seemed to want more from Keith and Keith didn't want to tell anyone here anything lest they tossed him out after realizing what an abomination he was. At his cell the soldier made sure he never forgot that. He was a freak, a hybrid monster, a disgusting slut. His Lance didn't know that yet and his Lance never needed to know that. 

That secret was part of why he concealed his terror from Lance. Well, as much of it as he could. His nightmares were his to bare and his alone. He was already such a burden to his Lance physically and he didn't want to pile his emotional problems on Lance as well. 

Keith felt bad for Lance, it was obvious Lance was concerned for him but Keith was used to constant fear. He knew what it was and he welcomed it. At least he could understand torture. These fleshy beings were not like that galra that he had resided with before. They did not cut him or punch him or fuck him like the Galra did. They did not starve him or inject him with things or freeze him like the galra did. Lance, he knew, would never do those things. He promised. No one had ever broken a promise made to him before. The galra promised him that every night he was in that cell he would hurt, and he did. So Lance's promise would be kept too! Because promises were always kept!

As long as Lance was around, Keith would be okay. 

The cell, no, room Keith was being kept in was nice. He had a bed to sleep in and he had a bathroom too! He'd never had a bathroom before. Whenever he had to be cleaned the galra simply sprayed him with ice water and soap. Whenever he had to go he simply did it in the corner. He hadn't even a bucket. When the champion was with him he was given a bucket and it was nice! It didn't spread or pool and it kept the stink to one corner... but then champion left and with him the bucket and most of Keith hope. The champion never promised Keith anything but he implied. 

Keith knew that if it wasn't a promise it didn't matter so he was sad but he expected it. Everyone leaves Keith.

But not Lance! Lance promised and Keith trusted promises. 

Keith trusted Lance.

. . . . . . . . . .

Lance noticed that Keith had zoned out. He couldn't help but wonder what Keith was thinking. What was Keith thinking? What- he heard a knock that jolted both Keith and Lance out of their thoughts.

Keith's eyes widened and he shrunk back on the bed, wrapping the blanket around him. The cute fluffy ears atop his head were pressed back to his skull in terror. Lance smiled gently at him and said, "I'll see what that is but don't worry, okay?"

"No leaf." Keith whispered.

"Remember, I promised, I won't. I'll be right here with you. You can even come with if you want." Lance told him, Keith shook his head.

Lance nodded and saw who was on the other side of the door, "Pidge? What's up?"

Keith moved a bit so he could see who was there, the small one with the glass on her face! He was okay with that. "Are you okay with Pidge coming in, Keith?" Keith nodded eagerly, he liked the small one!

Pidge walked in and smiled down at Keith, "Hey Keith! I brought a new thing for you, I was hoping you'd like it." Pidge put a miniature Voltron figure on Keith's bed.

Keith nudged it with his hand, "-Oltorn?"

Lance nodded happily and Pidge piped in, "Press the middle of his chest." Keith did and the lions broke apart into five mini replicas. Keith gasped and smiled as they walked around on the bed. Pidge turned to Lance and said, "I made it so they moved like kids toys back home. Once he gets used to them moving I'll make them act more like how our lions act."

"How did you make these? They're so realistic!" Lance beamed.

"Well, the lions themselves helped me quite a bit. They seem to like Keith despite never truly meeting him." Pidge shrugged. "He likes Red a lot but he's playing with Blue."

It was true. The green, yellow, and black lions were at Keith lap, roaming lazily over his knees as Red curled up in his long black hair. Blue was in Keith's hands, walking around over his arms as Keith stared at it, smiling. "-Ance in here! How you fit?"

Lance laughed, "I have a much bigger one. This is a little version."

"You no fit?"

"No, I wouldn't fit in there."

Keith looked at Pidge and pointed at the green lion, "You in this one."

"Yeah, Keith. How- How did you know?" Pidge asked.

"Told me." Keith responded hesitantly.

"The- The lions? They told you?" Pidge cocked her head to the side.

Keith nodded, tears forming in his eyes, "Bad?"

Lance leaped into action, "No, no, Keith. That's good! I can talk to my lion too! It's awesome!"

Keith smiled, "Really?"

Pidge nodded, "Yeah! I can talk to my lion too!"

Keith smiled and picked up Red, "She talk to me! Say she like me!" Allura's lion... the one that she said wouldn't listen to her... No... Keith couldn't be... "Say I no read yet. Blue say -ance like me!"

"She's right, Keith! I like you a lot! So does Pidge!" Lance told him.

Keith nodded, "Who, -unk?"

"Hunk pilots the yellow lion. Why do you ask?" Pidge responded.

"They talk bout him. They say he nice. He would be nice me." Keith smiled, his tail twitched.

"Yeah, Hunk is super nice! He'd love you. Remember the food in the kitchen?" Keith grinned, "He makes food ten times better than that. And he is super smart he helped me make the little light box." Pidge responded.

"Me-" Then they heard screaming outside the door.

"GALRA! GALRA ON THE SHIP! GALRA ON THE SHIP!" Coran screamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ughhhhhh. Sorry guys, I've been super sick for the past couple days and I couldn't do anything at all. But I went to the hospital and got my drugs and I'm feeling better so I thought I'd celebrate that by writing a real quick chapter. Plus I have a ton of school work to make up because of my being sick (ugh) but that's fine. 
> 
> Keith's past with the KE2603 will be explained in later chapters (not entirely sure how much later but later) and stuff. 
> 
> I've got a ton of stuff going on right now so I'm really sorry about the random postings. I'm moving to a different continent (again) and I've got that going for me, hahaha... But yeah. Plus, ya know, just general stress. But I really like this story and how it's been going so far and you guys are amazing!
> 
> I really hope you guys are plenty healthy and are having great days! Comments make me super happy and I always loooove seeing them down there!


	6. Chapter 6

Keith jumped and dropped the lions. They hit the ground with a hard thump and Keith's eyes began to water. "Sorry." He whimpered, looking at Pidge.

Pidge put on the best smile she could with the confusion about the galra on the ship, "It's okay, Keith. They're sturdy things." Pidge exchanged a glance with Lance, "We need to see what's going on." 

Lance looked down at Keith, he couldn't just leave him. "Keith, if you promise to stay close to me and stay safe, I'll let you come with me and Pidge." Keith nodded frantically. Lance grabbed his bayard and Keith's hand, "Alright, Pidge, let's go."

Pidge looked at Keith in concern, "Are you sure we should B-R-I-N-G H-I-M?" 

"I can't just L-E-A-V-E H-I-M." Lance responded.

Keith looked up at them, not sure what they were saying but not caring at the moment. He tightened his grip on Lance's hand and Lance nodded, "Let's go," Coran screamed, "Now."

They walked out the door. Pidge in front, Keith a little in front of Lance, and Lance in the back. It wasn't hard to find the action. Coran was jumping around and screaming information that was not entirely relevant, Hunk had his canon out not firing for fear of hitting someone else, Allura had her whip and sword out and was trying to find the best way to knock the galra off its feet, and Shiro was fighting the galra with his arm glowing.

The galra itself was huge, two times the size of Shiro and bursting with muscles. The yellow eyes almost seemed to glow with the anger it was exuding. Shiro jumped to avoid his claws, long and sharp, yet luckily not bloody yet. By it's uniform, Lance could tell he was a soldier. How did it get on? When did it get on? There were so many questions he wanted answered but then Pidge leapt into the fight and snapped him out of his trance.

He turned Keith away from the fight to look at him, "I need to help them, okay? You need to go back to the room and get yourself safe. Here," Lance took a small dagger from the weapons drawer in the room and thrust it into Keith's hands, "just in case. Now go back, I can handle myself."

Keith shook his head, "I no leaf -ance."

"Keith, please, please, for me." He pleaded. Keith sighed and nodded, clutching the dagger and disappearing out the doorway.

Lance turned and readied his gun just as Shiro was thrown across the room, left shoulder bloody and a gash in his side. Hunk fired and hit the galra on the chest. It stumbled back, huffing and growling. It turned toward Hunk and jumped.

Hunk scurried out of the way and yelled, "Someone else do something!"

Allura leapt forward with a stab and sunk her sword into the galra's side. It stopped and looked down at the sword then at her and snarled.

Allura paled, "Oh quiznak," then she was slammed into the wall. She groaned as she slid to the floor, her eyes unfocused and her nose bleeding.

"Princess!" Coran yelped. He ran over, shielding her from further damage.

"Pidge, Lance!" Hunk yelled, "Ambush?"

They nodded and all leapt onto the beast, firing and shocking. It... did not go exactly as planned... Hunk and Pidge were immediately shot into the wall by the galra's two giant arms. Lance gulped and smiled nervously, "Hey, Mr. Galra, um... Truce?" The galra roared and picked him up, claws sinking into his arms and back, he was thrown, once again, into the damn wall. They seriously needed to have padded walls from this moment forward so all these damned wall smashings stopped happening.

Lance blinked the blurriness out the best he could. He wheezed and tried to get a grip on his bayard. Just then he heard a higher pitched growling. He turned his head to the side as far as he could without hurting himself too much.

Was that... Oh no... Keith!

. . . . . . . .

Keith didn't leave when he was supposed to. He stayed in the hallway, his head peaked into the room to watch. He flinched and gripped the dagger harder when the not Champion was thrown into the wall. That looked like it hurt. The not champion made a very loud sound when it happened. He whimpered when the white haired one was thrown off. The loud orange one bounded after her and planted himself in front of her.

The orange one seemed to be nice. He was protecting his person. By the markings, Keith assumed they were related or something. However, no one was protecting his Lance. His Lance said he could take care of himself but still, his Lance needed to be okay.

The three were saying things to each other that Keith did not understand. The galra, on the other hand, he could understand. He was speaking Galranton, a primitive form of the Galra dialect that no respectable galra spoke and no translator translated anymore. It was considered to be a savage language and was only spoken by the very lowest scum of the galra. Which was the only language that Keith spoke fluently. 

"You Paladin scum, you took my favorite slut and I will redeem myself to my emperor by retrieving him!" The galra roared. 

Keith flinched and shrunk back a little bit, he didn't want to leave Lance, he didn't want to go back.

The three left, including his Lance, jumped on the monster and failed to subdue him. The two, not his Lance, the short one and the Hunk one, were shot away.

His Lance was lifted up, the soldier sunk his claws into his Lance! No! No! His Lance was hurt! This thing hurt his Lance! His Lance was swung into a wall and Keith let out a cry. His Lance!

Keith walked into the room angrily. He let loose the guttural noises that made up the Galranton speech, "Do not touch my Lance!" 

The soldier turned to him and laughed, "You idiot. You silly slave! You think they want you! You think anyone wants you! You're nothing but an experiment, a number! KE2603!"

"That's not my name! My name is Keith and my Lance wants me! My Lance promised he wouldn't leave me! He's so nice to me and he wants me!" Keith argued.

"Well, Keith, look at 'your Lance' now! What an idiot! I will kill him and all of his friends then I will take you back to the emperor so he can deal with you and I can be rewarded for killing the paladins of Voltron!" The soldier smiled, his huge fangs bared.

The orange one made a few noises that Keith recognized to be english but didn't have the time to decipher. Keith bristled, his Lance was amazing and this soldier was talking bad about him! Not his Lance! Keith snarled and leapt, dagger in hand. He stabbed his way up the massive galra until he was clawing into the things back. The soldier roared in pain and tried to bang Keith into the wall but Keith was too fast and he got away before the wall could come in contact with him.

Keith bared his teeth and sunk his fangs into the ears of the massive soldier, tearing and ripping at the furry appendages. He growled as he tore into the galra's face with his small, hybrid claws. No one hurt his lance, no one hurt his lance! "No one hurts my Lance! No one hurts my Lance!" Keith screamed. 

The galra fell to the ground and Keith began clawing into the galra's chest. The soldier managed to get a few swipes at Keith, his claws ripped into Keith's side and arm. But that didn't stop Keith. Keith had never felt this way. His eyebrows turned downward and he was frowning but he wasn't sad. No, he was angry.

He was so, so angry! He was angry about everything! He hated his past and he hated those Galra! He hated that his Lance was hurt and he hated the soldier that did it! He hated and hated and hated and hated. He just got so angry! Until he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, he turned and snarled until he saw it was his Lance.

His Lance was okay! Bleeding, which Keith was NOT happy about, but okay! "Keith, it's okay now. He's down and I'm alright. You can stop now." 

Keith's eyes began to water and he whimpered, "Bad?"

Lance's eyes widened, "No no no no no! It was very good what you did! You saved us all and you did a very good job. You saved me and my friends and we are all very grateful that you did!" Lance pulled Keith into a hug, "That must've been so scary! You are so brave, Keith!" Lance pulled back and smiled, "Now, let's go get fixed up!"

Keith let himself be taken away by Lance. He didn't see the looks the others were giving him, he didn't see the fear that was set in their eyes, and he didn't see the grateful faces that followed him out the door because he had his Lance, and that was all that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It had been a while since I posted and I'm super sorry for that! I hope you guys like this chapter! I'm going to try to post another chapter by at least next Saturday. I'm going to attempt to be consistent but I am very much a mess so that might be a bit tough, hahaha! 
> 
> Anyway, make sure to leave a comment down below and I hope you guys had an awesome day!


	7. Chapter 7

Lance couldn't seem to stop thinking. Somehow, whether it be instinct or somehow training, Keith managed to completely destroy a galra easily four times as large as him without much problem. Keith was bleeding sluggishly out of the gaping wounds in his side yet was able to power on without even blinking. If that was simply galra adrenaline then Voltron was up against a fearsome group in hand to hand combat. 

Keith seemed to notice him deep in thought and nudged his side, "-Ance okay?"

"Yeah, Keith. Just a little banged up. I would've been a lot worse if you hadn't stepped in." Lance smiled.

Keith just frowned and looked up at him, "You sai' you 'an 'andle youself but you no did tha'. You 'urt and tha' no 'andling youself. If I no be there there be no -ance! I no like no -ance!"

Lance sighed, "I know, Keith. I was wrong but you were there so I ended up being okay! Sometimes people are wrong but everything still ends up good because other people end up being right. You were right and I'm very glad that you didn't leave me, however, if you had gotten hurt, and you did, but if you had gotten hurt worse I would've never been able to forgive myself. You're my friend, Keith. You'll alway be important to me."

"And you importan' to me -ance!" Keith piped in.

Lance smiled, "Thank you, Keith. And when someone is important to you you don't want to see them get hurt, right?" Keith shook his head frantically, "So, I never ever ever want to see you hurt. I'd prefer it was me who was under the claws, not you."

Keith whimpered, "No. I no want -ance hurt."

"It's okay, Keith. You're my friend. I know you don't want to see me hurt but it'll happen and I don't want you to get yourself in harm's way in order to try and prevent that. Okay?" Keith nodded slowly and remained silent the rest of the way. 

When they made it to the med room Keith began to grip onto Lance tighter than he had been doing before. "I no want to."

Lance sighed, "Keith, you need to heal. To do that you need to go into the pod."

Keith shook his head and used one hand to point at Lance's arm where the galra had sunk his claws in, "You hurt too. You need pod more but you no go in! Why I go in if you no do?"

"Keith, your injuries are worse than mine are. I just have a few little nicks on my arm I'll be completely fine. You need to go into the pod if you are to heal. If you don't go in you'll be hurt much longer and that would make me very, very sad. I want you to okay and when you aren't I am sad." Lance explained, putting on the best puppy dog eyes he could manage at the time.

Keith's purple eyes widened and his jaw dropped, "I no want you be sad!" Keith's voice quivered and Lance began to feel a little bad about guilting Keith. It was for his own good, however, so he didn't feel that bad. "I go in po- and you no be sad?" Lance nodded, jutting out his lower lip a little to really sell it (man, was he lucky Keith didn't know these tricks), "Okay. I go in po- then." 

Lance gently laid his hand on Keith's shoulder and smiled, "Thank you, Keith. Now! Let's get you in there!" 

After Keith was placed inside and safely asleep Lance slowly began his return to the room where his team was likely to still be. Lance had no idea what their reactions would be to this. Allura would probably be really angry but she'd see reason eventually. She just needed the chance to get to know Keith like he and Pidge had been able to.

With his breath held, Lance crossed the threshold into the room. He couldn't help but notice the absence of unconscious galra in the room. Perhaps they'd already taken care of that.

Everyone was silent for a good second, Pidge and Hunk, like Lance, were holding their breaths to see how Allura would react to knowing that Keith could fight and was pretty good at it. Shiro was staring at his hands, apparently deep in thought, and Coran had his hand on Allura's shoulder just in case she had an explosive reaction.

Allura drew her breath and everyone refused to even blink, "Lance," Lance gulped, "we cannot keep Keith aboard this ship." Lance opened his mouth to argue but Allura continued before he could start, "He is a galra and he obviously knows how to fight. What is to prevent him from killing all of us or taking information back to Zarkon? We have no assurance that he was ever even a prisoner, they could've set that up knowing that we would 'save' him. Even if he was a prisoner, what is to stop him from returning to Zarkon with information or with us in order to try and secure a better place in the Empire?"

Allura paused just long enough for Lance to interrupt her, "Don't be such an ignorant jerk, Allura." Lance growled, he ignored Pidge's 'oohs' in the background, "One, Keith is only half galra, he's not a full blown brainwashed galra nut. Two, yeah he knows how to fight. He saved us all! If he hadn't stepped in we would be dead and Voltron would be over, the Empire would've won. Three, he was definitely a prisoner. I've been with him for the past couple days and if he was faking everything he is very good at it. He hardly knows how to talk and every time he falls asleep he has nightmares. He never even ate fruit before I gave some to him. I'm pretty sure they'd only been feeding him crappy bread and some water! And-"

"He didn't save us all, Lance." Allura ground out, "He saved you. Had you not been injured he never would've stepped in. He would've left us all to die had you not been there. And maybe he is just a really good actor! Maybe-"

"Princess, from what I can remember of my basic training in Galranton, I believe the big one did refer to Keith as KE2603 which would make sense if he was a prisoner that he would have a number." Coran popped in to supply his help in the argument.

"They could've planned this whole fight, along with the dialogue before hand." Allura suggested.

"Oh I highly doubt that, Allura." Lance scoffed, "And also, sure, he saved me, but none of you guys have been able to connect with him yet. Once you're nice to him Keith is suuuuper loyal to you. And I mean it when I say that. He's already started to like Pidge, you wanna know why, because she's been trying! And I know Keith isn't completely ready to meet all of you yet but you can at least save your judgement of him until you are able to talk to him. And if he is a spy he's not going to be able to take that much mission info to Zarkon because I'm not talking about that stuff. I'm telling him about my family, Earth, you guys. It makes him happy."

Pidge nodded in agreement, "Yeah, Keith is a nice kid. He's a little shy but he's super nice. Once he get's more acclimated to here you guys will love him. I see a lot of potential in that kid."

Lance snorted, "'Kid'? He's probably older than you. Or at least he looks it."

Pidge glared at him.

"Fine, I'll give Keith a chance. However, if he fails or I find something out that proves anything of what I said then he is out. I'm am not changing my mind on this, my decision is final." Allura stated, laying down the law. 

Lance wanted to argue, he wanted to say something. How could she be so ignorant? Why wouldn't she at least try to accept Keith? Sure, she lost everything due to the galra but Coran was able to at least not try to crucify Keith! Lance didn't want to lose Keith. He'd grown connected to him and it was nice to just be able to let everything out. He didn't have to hold anything back from Keith. He could talk about how sometimes he wondered if he was good enough for Voltron or how occasionally he would think about just going back home.

Keith was his rock and he needed Keith almost as much as Keith needed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! It's been over a week since I last updated and I'm super sorry for that! I'm feeling a bit inspired right now with this story so I might be posting another chapter really quickly. The holiday break is also coming up pretty quickly for me so I (hopefully) will be posting more in that first week!
> 
> Also, we've reached over 200 kudos and I'm so surprised! Thank all of you so much! I saw that and it made me so happy!
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment and I hope you had an amazing day!


	8. Chapter 8

Keith woke up and the first thing he saw was his Lance. 

His Lance was slumped over in a chair across from his pod. His hair was disheveled and he had a book in his hand. How long had he been there? How long had Keith been in the pod? Keith carefully stepped out, his balance was still off as if he had just woken up and he hated it. He wanted to wake up his Lance but he didn't want to be rude. If he was rude his Lance might get mad at him and hate him. But he also didn't want to leave. If he left his Lance he might not ever find him again! That possibility was unthinkable!

Keith heard his stomach growl, he was hungry. He was very hungry! He couldn't wake up Lance and he couldn't leave Lance but he wanted to eat. He really wanted that juicy thing again. That was the best thing he'd ever eaten. If tasted better than Keith had ever known food could taste.

Maybe he could find his way to the kitchen and back without getting seen or losing Lance. Was if really worth the risk? The other people on the ship must be trustworthy because his Lance said that they were his friends. He would be okay with seeing the short one. That one was nice and would probably give him the juicy thing.

It would be okay to leave his Lance for just a little bit if he was safe with his Lance's friend. Yes, and if it was not good Keith would escape and come back to his Lance!

He made up his mind and tentatively stepping into the hallway. Keith remembered the smell of the kitchen and used his nose to find it. It took him a couple minutes and down many odd hallways. He felt himself getting lost and anxiety rose in his chest. This was a mistake! This was bad! They would find him and they would take him and do bad things to him! He wasn't safe he wasn't safe he wasn't safe without his Lance.

Why did he ever think he could do this? A few days out of his cell and he was already so stupid. He knew he should stay where it was safe and he didn't need to worry. That was with his Lance. 

Keith should've just suffered through the hunger pains until his Lance woke up. 

Gasps and pants escaped Keith. He couldn't breath! He was dying! Oh no no no!

He heard footsteps, hard thumps against the floor. He knew that sound, the soldiers always made that sound when they were coming for him, heaving thumps of shoes against the floor. The footsteps were getting more urgent now and Keith tried to accept his fate. He had a few good days, his Lance made his last few days okay. At least he knew what happiness was. Or at least he thought he did, what if this was all a dream? If his Lance wasn't real Keith would die. 

He heard a gasp and someone knelt next to him, it was time. It was going to happen again. "Keith? Are you okay? Where's Lance?"

At the sound of Lance's name Keith's head jolted up. It wasn't a soldier, at least not the galra one, it was the Hunk. The short one and his Lance's friend. His stomach let out a long grumble and hugged it tightly. "Oh I see," the Hunk said, "You're hungry. You want food." Hunk outstretch his hand and stood up, "Come with me, I'm the best cook this castle has ever seen. I'm great."

Keith hesitantly took the man's hand. The man smiled and gently helped him up. So far this Hunk was nice. Keith could only hope he would be able to stay that way. Keith didn't take his hand from Hunk's grip, he was nice and warm and Keith was cold and didn't have his Lance.

When they finally arrived at the kitchen Hunk sat Keith down on a chair and grabbed many food products and a pan. "This is what I call the space omelet." Hunk smiled at him and juggled a few eggs, "I saw these babies at a space mall and wanted to try this out and it came out about the same as it would've back home."

Keith flinched when Hunk cracked the eggs into a bowl and mixed them together with some spices he'd thrown in. Despite his anxiety about this whole situation Keith found Hunk's cooking fascinating. He was throwing things around and chopping things up with such an alarming amount of speed and precision that Keith's jaw dropped. It was truly fascinating watching the 'magic happen' as Hunk stated while doing approximately four things at once.

"I'm going to toast up some bread just so you can get the full experience." Hunk grinned, "'Toast and eggs are the perfect combination' is what my mom always said!"

Stared in fascination at the eggs as they cooked. It was so bizarre to see it happen. He'd never witnessed someone cook, never had the chance but now that he had he almost wanted to try it out.

Hunk took the now toasted bread off of the stove and put it onto a plate and then gracefully placed the omelet beside it. Keith went to grab it with his hands but Hunk handed him a spear thing. "This is a fork. You hold it like this to eat." Hunk demonstrated by miming a bite and handing the fork to Keith.

Keith slowly and cautiously took a bite. The fork was a weird addition but the rest of the meal was delicious. He almost completely ditched the fork to dig into the thing but decided against it seeing how Hunk wanted him to and therefore Lance would want him to as well.

Hunk wrung his hands and stared at Keith hopefully, "Do you... Do you like it?"

Keith nodded intensely and shoveled bite after bite into his mouth, "I like!"

Hunk beamed at him, pride and happiness poured out of his expression. "I'm glad! Anytime you're hungry just come to me and I'll make you anything you want! I love cooking for my friends to enjoy it!"

"Frien-?" Keith asked.

"Well..." Hunk gulped nervously, "I hope we can be friends. I'd love it if we could be friends."

Keith nodded, "Okay. You -ance frien- you my frien- too." He grinned and inhaled the rest of the food, feeling satisfied at the full feeling in his stomach. That was so good!

"Where -ance?" Keith asked, he thought his Lance would've woken up by this time and come to find him.

"I'm sure he's still in the med room." Hunk assured him.

Keith felt panic crawl up his sides, he needed to find his Lance. He'd spent too much time away and he needed to be by his Lance! His Lance would hate him! "I nee- -ance!" Keith gasped, tears stung his eyes and Hunk began to get nervous as well.

"It's okay, Keith. I'll bring you to Lance." Hunk gulped.

Keith didn't hear him, Keith couldn't hear him over the screaming in his head. The fear that he'd disappointed his Lance was too strong and he almost lost the food that Hunk had prepared for him. No! "-Ance!" Keith cried out in fear. "I nee- -ance!"

Hunk nodded as he watched the scene unfold before him, the tiny kid was crying and shaking on the floor, breath coming in quick ragged pants. He could leave him but he needed to get Lance. Hunk tapped into the comms, he buzzed the med room until he got Lance's attention.

"Who is it?" Lance asked groggily. 

"Yeah, Lance we got a-"

"Shit! Where's Keith?" He heard Lance yell, so he figured it out.

"He's here in the kitchen. I fed him but then he started freaking out about you not being here. Get here faster! He's terrified! I don't know what to do." Hunk choked out, tired and feeling helpless.

"I'm coming. I'll be there soon!" He heard Lance hang up and knew he was running here as fast as he could.

Keith shook, dry sobs coming out like coughs as he had his attack. He was scared and sad and he wanted his Lance.

"Keith, I don't know if you can hear me but Lance is coming and you'll be okay soon!" Hunk tried to reassure him, "I'm so sorry that this is happening."

. . . . . . .

Lance woke up to the most annoying buzzing he had ever heard. It was loud and piercing and made him want to sleep even more. He grumbled as he made his way to answer whoever was trying to talk to him. "Who is it?" He grumbled, his mouth tasted gross.

"Yeah," Hunk, "Lance, we got a-" 

Just then Lance saw the absence of his favorite half-galra and screamed, "Shit! Where is Keith?"

"He's here in the kitchen," Hunk told him, "I fed him but then he started freaking out about you not being here. Get here faster! He's terrified! I don't know what to do."

What was Keith doing in the kitchen? When did he wake up? Why wasn't Lance there for him?

"I'm coming. I'll be there soon!" Lance yelled as he began running down the halls. Keith was scared, Keith wasn't with him, Keith was scared! Lance hated himself for not being awake when Keith woke up.

Lance ran, not thinking about anything but Keith, to the kitchen. He scrambled inside and immediately saw Keith, he was curled into a ball, his body racked with sobs as he muttered unintelligible words. He knelt beside him and ran his hand's through Keith's hair, "It's okay, Keith. I'm here now. I'm sorry I wasn't awake when you woke up. I'm so sorry."

Slowly Keith looked up at him, tears in his eyes, "-Ance?"

"Yeah, buddy, it's me. I'm so sorry."

"You sorry?" Keith asked, confusion spread across his features, "I sorry. I so sorry. I no think. I stupid. I stupid stupid stupid. I sorry. I sorry that I stupid." Keith whimpered.

It was Lance's turn to be confused now, "You're sorry? Keith you have nothing to be sorry about. It was my fault. I should've been up when you came out but I fell asleep because I wasn't thinking."

Keith shook his head furiously, holding Lance's arm in a tight grip, "I leaf, I no think. My fault."

Lance chuckled and brushed a few stray hairs off of Keith's face, "I'm very proud of you, Keith. It was very brave of you to go explore the ship. You got to meet Hunk without even needing me to introduce you to him. You are so, so brave!"

"I... I brave?"

"Yes!" Lance laughed, "Yes, Keith. That was so brave of you and I am very, very proud."

Keith smiled and looked over to Hunk who was watching this whole interaction from the corner, "I brave! I meet you!"

Hunk nodded eagerly, happy and relieved that Keith was okay, "Yes you are. I'm very happy that I met you, Keith. And I'll be very happy to cook you as much food as you want too! Also, Pidge and I are very happy to make you little inventions, it keeps our brains sharp!"

Keith grinned, "I like short one, too."

Lance and Hunk both snorted at this and Hunk replied, "I'll make sure I tell her that."

Lance looked up at Hunk, "You made him food?"

"Yeah, an omelet and toast. He liked it." Hunk confirmed.

Lance glanced down at Keith, who was now snuggly tucked in his lap, "I bet it tasted really good, didn't it?" Keith nodded sleepily, the time since he had woken up had been very stressful, "Yeah. I should get you to bed shouldn't I?" Keith didn't respond, simply shifted to get more comfortable. "Okay, when you wake up we can go talk to Pidge and Hunk again."

Lance nodded to Hunk as he left for his room. When he laid Keith down on the bed he couldn't help the smile that forced its way onto his face. Keith was getting connected to the team on his own, he was okay, he would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one out pretty quickly! We finally got to see some real Hunk and Keith interaction! I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up but hopefully soon! Comments are awesome and I alway love to see what you guys think! I hope you had a wonderful day!


	9. Chapter 9

Keith woke up in the same dark room that he had been in for such a long time. After he rubbed the sleep from his eyes he noticed one crucial detail, where was his Lance? His Lance wasn't in the chair next to him or on the floor sleeping. He was simply... gone. Keith stumbled from his bed and searched the room. Every single tiny crevice was searched just in case his Lance had somehow shrunken down and hidden in there. Keith didn't wan to lose his Lance again!

The bathroom! He hadn't yet checked the bathroom! What if his Lance was in there and hurt? Keith ran to the bathroom ready to knock down the door when it slid open. A puff of steam was released as Lance appeared in the doorway. "Hey, Keith. How'd you sleep?" Keith couldn't even fathom into words the relief he felt.

"Good."

Lance grinned, "Good! Are you feeling up to visiting Hunk and Pidge today?" 

Keith nodded, "I like Hunk and Short One." 

Lance snorted, "Pidge'll love if you call her that, Keith. Maybe you should stick to Pidge because she's a tiny ball of fire."

"She one fire? So she no human?" Keith asked, cocking his head to the side,

"No, she's not literally a fireball, she just had a lot of... um... passion. She's human." Lance mumbled.

"Then why she no burn if she on fire?" Keith didn't understand at all.

"It's a metaphor. It's when you call something something to compare the thing to the other thing even though that thing isn't actually the other thing. Ya, know?" Lance smacked his head, "Just ignore everything I said, it makes no sense. I think I just managed to confuse myself more!"

"Okay, -ance." Keith said slowly and hesitantly.

"Tell you what, if you ask really nicely Hunk will probably make you food and me too if you ask really nice. That would be delicious, right?" Keith agreed again, Hunk made the most delicious thing he'd ever eaten in his entire life the first time Keith met him.

"I like food." Keith smiled.

"Me too, Keith. Honestly, I love food more than I love the air I breathe!" Lance laughed, "Well, I'm almost all ready but I can finish up out here if you want to go in and get prepared for today."

Keith grabbed a change of clothes that Lance had given him and entered the bathroom to wash up.

The moment Lance exited the bathroom he was worried. Keith was standing right in front of the door, his muscles were tensed and his eyes were wide in fear and surprise. Lance concluded Keith must've been scared when he woke up alone and thought he'd been left alone again. That just boosted Lance's own anxiety. What will Keith do when Lance needs to leave him by himself? Voltron will ned to be formed again and, sure, Pidge told him about her idea to add a seat to Lance's lion but Lance wasn't about to put Keith in danger.

Voltron wasn't a safe place to be. Lance was okay with putting himself in danger but not Keith. Sure, he didn't like the pain or the fear that went along with being a paladin but it was worth it. 

Lance's mind spiraled as he continued on this thought path. Keith seemed so dependent on him. Any moment without Lance could trigger a panic attack in the small half-galra. The picture of Keith curled on the floor, sobbing entered his mind. Throughout all the battles and all the horror he knew nothing had been nearly as scary as seeing that. What would happen if Lance was captured? What would Keith do if Lance was killed? 

He knew that they were lucky Keith had been doing so well on this ship. After what he'd been through it would be expected for Keith to be completely broken, unable to trust or handle friendship. However, Keith was doing a good job. The panic attacks were minimal and he seemed to like Hunk, Pidge, and Lance. He trusted Lance so much it scared Lance a little. What if he did something to break that precious fragile thing? Lance would hate himself if he broke Keith in any way.

Lance knew that he was Keith rock, Keith's sanity. So... what would happen if Keith lost him...?

He heard the door to the bathroom opened and he emerged from the depth of his mind. Forcing a smile on his face wasn't hard but after seeing Keith's worried face he wondered if it was quick enough so Keith didn't see his frown.

"You ready to go, Keith?" Lance asked cheerily.

Keith nodded and laced his fingers between Lance's. Keith would never let go of his Lance again. After the events of yesterday he was worried that if he didn't physically keep a hold on Lance he might lose him again. Sure, yesterday if was Keith's own fault even if Lance had so firmly told him otherwise afterwards.

They walked down the long hallway to Hunk and Pidge's workroom. Lance opened the door and yelled, "Knock, knock!"

Pidge and Hunk walked forward and smiled when they saw Keith. "Heya, Keith! How're you doing today?" Pidge asked.

Keith was a bit confused, so many people were asking how he was feeling, "I good."

"That's real nice, Keith." Pidge replied, "I'm doing good, too. I'm very glad you felt up to hanging out with us today. So what do you want to do?"

Keith turned to Hunk, "Lance say if I ask nice Hunk make me food and Lance want food too. He said if I ask real nice he get food too so that is what I do. I like food and I like Lance."

Hunk turned his eyes to Lance, "Did he say that now?" At the same time Pidge yelled out, "I want food too!"

Hunk rolled his eyes. "Keith, don't listen to them. I'll give you food anytime you want, you don't even need to ask! Those two, however, that's a different case."

"Why?" Keith asked.

"Because those two are just two cotton-headed ninny muggins!" Hunk yelled.

Lance gasped in offense, holding a hand to his chest he sputtered, "Me! A cotton-headed ninny muggins? No! maybe Pidge but not me!"

"What a codon-deded nimuggins?" Keith asked, butchering the odd string of words as he did so.

"It's a person who is really dumb and doesn't get to eat my food right now." Hunk explained somewhat dramatically.

Keith's eyes widened and his jaw-dropped, "Lance deserves food! Lance need food! He love it so much, he love it more than air and he need it too! Please give Lance food He need it!"

Hunk sighed and nodded, "Alright, Keith. I guess you're right and you are the boss so I guess they can eat then," Hunk reluctantly walked to the kitchen, just slow enough so everyone could follow him.

"What do you say, Keith? Pancakes? Waffles? I'll make you anything."

"I no know. What you make?" Keith asked.

Hunk mentally slapped himself on the forehead, of course Keith wouldn't know, "How about pancakes? Those are really easy to make and taste delicious. You get the first one, though. Those ninny muggins can eat but you get to eat first." Keith nodded reluctantly and allowed Pidge to hand him a plate and fork.

Keith was mesmerized while watching Hunk cook so he completely missed the conversation that was going on around him. It was so interesting to him how Hunk managed to slip the pancake so easily. Sure, Hunk said this recipe was easy but Keith didn't know if he'd ever be able to do that thing. Sooner than Keith thought possible he had a steaming pancake in front of him.

"It would taste better with syrup but sadly I couldn't find an adequate substitute. When we get back to Earth I'll make then the right way." Hunk promised.

Keith awkwardly grabbed the fork and stabbed down into the fluffy circle. Everyone watched nervously as Keith lifted it to his mouth, sniffed it, and took a bite. IF was pretty easy to see the moment he tasted it. His ears popped up and his tail swished down by the floor. He demolished that one pretty quickly while the others ate theirs. 

"Do you like it, Keith?" Hunk asked, wringing his hands in fear of rejection. 

Keith nodded roughly, "I like it lot! Ever'thing you make good!"

Pidge and Lance grunted out their agreement because they couldn't talk around the mouthful of pancakes in their mouths. 

"Ah, Keith." Hunk smiled, tears forming in his eyes, "Thank you! You are too kind!"

Pidge finally swallowed her gulp of pancake as Keith ate his next one, "After this do you want to go to our work room? We were just there but you didn't really get to see it. It's where Hunk and I made your little gadgets."

"The lions?" Keith asked. Ever since the fight when Keith left his lions in the room he hadn't hardly touched them. He never got around to it but he hoped to do it soon.

"Yup, those too." Pidge smiled. "Do you want to come?"

Keith nodded and Pidge grinned, "Great! Once we're done here we can stop at the work room for a bit."

Hunk, Lance, Pidge, and Keith all finished eating pretty shortly after she said that. They walked back down the hall again to the work room. Keith was holding Lance's hand again and when they entered he tightened his grip a little bit. However, the farther they walked in the looser Keith's grip got. When they entered the middle of the room Keith completely stopped.

Keith was entranced. This place was absolutely beautiful. There were loose projects scattered around the space, big and small, finished and abandoned. He spotted both a chair and what seemed to be a glowing fan. There were blueprints all over the place. Some were printed on paper and left on countertops while others, the ones Keith loved to watch go by, were floating light. They just drifted around the room. 

Lance smiled down at Keith and gently squeezed his hand to wake him up. Keith looked around a little bit more before following Pidge and Hunk to a work table in the middle of the room. They pulled up three chairs, Hunk and Pidge sat beside him and Lance and Keith were crammed into one chair. 

Pidge and Hunk began showing Keith the basics of building things. They started out with little windup toys which Keith made into a cat but a couple hours in they were already on robotics. Lance was... bored. He was very bored. He knew what they were talking about, sure. He had to take that course in the garrison but it never interested him. His only dream had been to become a pilot and he did.

Lance was willing to sit through hours of boredom if it meant Keith was happy. Keith certainly loved building things. Great, Lance thought, now I have three Bob the Builders on this ship. 

He was also impressed, Keith seemed to be able to learn extremely quickly. After just some basic explanation he was able to get everything perfected. Lance had never seen anyone work as fast as Keith did. 

Keith seemed to be on a roll. Toy after toy he built them then he would turned them on and let them run, or hop, or fly, or dance away. Lance dozed off for a little bit but when he woke up Keith handed him a small bunny. Lance had told Keith about his childhood pet, Dandelion, a fluffy grey rabbit. He pulled out an Earth research book made by some aliens they encountered and pointed to the bunny to show Keith.

Obviously, Keith remembered and he made Lance a little memento to his past. This made Lance tear up a little bit. He thank Keith as much as he could and held it softly in his hands. He certainly didn't have to worry about breaking it because it was just metal but this tiny, one maybe two inch figurine would forever be cherished by Lance.

After another hour in there Keith started to drift off while making his robot. "Come on, Keith. Let's go to bed. You're tired."

"I make this." Keith yawned.

Pidge chuckled, "It's alright, Keith. I'll tell you what, since you like it in here so much and you are so good at it, you can come in here whenever you want and work on your projects."

Keith smiled and nodded, his head dropped and he began breathing softly, it was pretty obvious that he was exhausted. Lance scooped him up and said goodbye and thanks to Pidge and Hunk before walking off with Keith in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to post this earlier but my laptop broke again and everything was deleted and I had to restart the chapter. I hope you liked this one despite my slight failure on saving the original one! Comments are the best so I really hope you leave one! Have an awesome day!


	10. Chapter 10

Hunk brought some sandwiches to Lance's room for both him and Keith. He knew they weren't going to be at diner but he still wanted them to have food. After that both he and Pidge went to the dining hall for some good, old-fashioned goo. They walked in calmly but that demeanor changed the minute they saw Allura. She was standing up, her face hard and arms crossed. It was pretty easy to tell that she was mad. Shiro was in the corner looking as concentrated as one could be on a pile of green goo.

"Where were you two?" Allura asked pointedly.

Hunk gulped nervously as he felt his anxiety rise, he hate when people were mad at him. Pidge, however, couldn't give a damn, "We were hanging out with Keith and Lance."

Shiro glanced up quickly at the mention of Keith but didn't make any move to join the confrontation, sorry, conversation.

"You were hanging out with them all day?" The suspicion could easily be heard in her voice and if you couldn't hear it you could see it as she narrowed her eyes at the two paladins. "That seems a bit long to be hanging out with a person with issues that doesn't know you."

Pidge glowered at her as she responded through clenched teeth, "Keith is great when you actually are kind to him. Maybe you should give it try since your skills in that area have been lacking lately." Hunk scooted back a bit as Pidge said that, as far away from Allura as he could.

Allura's eyes widened in shock that anyone would dare say that too her, "I think you should watch your tone, paladin."

"Oh! What are you going to do? Ditch me on some nearby planet?" Pidge snapped.

"Of course not. However, I could put restrictions on the time you are required to spend training and when." The threat was there, 'I could cut off your time spent with Keith.'

Pidge threw her hands up in anger, "What the hell is your problem, Allura? Why do you have to be like this? You were kind before, why do you refuse to give Keith a chance? He's a great guy and you'd know that if you talked to him like a person for once!"

Allura snapped back, "He's a galra! All galra are evil creatures that deserve to be put down! They destroyed my home, my family! You wouldn't understand how it feels-"

"YOU SHUT UP, ALLURA!" Hunk yelled, surprising everyone in the room to silence, "Out of everyone here Pidge understands what it means to lose family to the galra. Or did you forget her father and brother?"

"I didn't thi-"

"You're damn right you didn't think!" Hunk interrupted, "Maybe if you actually spent a moment thinking about Keith! He's been through more than all of us have combined. Sure, he's half-galra but he isn't bad! The galra hurt him too! The galra took his life away from him, they raped him and beat him all his life and you have the gall to stand there preaching about how horrible the galra are when he's been through more than you ever have!"

"My entire plan-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! You're entire planet was destroyed! I feel so sorry for you! It sucks that that happened but it happened years ago and before it did the galra were your friends! It hurts but taking out your revenge on an innocent and beaten down kid isn't going to help you! If anything, it'll hurt you! If you keep acting this way to Keith soon you won't have your Blue Paladin or your Yellow Paladin!" Hunk growled.

"Or your Green Paladin. How are you going to function minus over half of Voltron, Allura?" Pidge smirked.

Hunk calmed down a little bit, "Think about it, Allura. I want to work with you, I want to protect the universe but you are dividing us."

Allura was practically boiling over, "No, Keith is dividing us."

"No, Allura, you are. You just refuse to see it that way." Hunk sighed, "We've accepted Keith, we know he's good, he's kind and smart and so, so precious. I want you to see that. I want you to be able to get over your prejudices and learn to accept Keith like we have." Hunk took a deep breath to regain his composure, "Once you get your head out of your ass, Allura, -and right now this goes for you too, Shiro- and try to get along with Keith then we can talk. If you're going to keep with this temper tantrum then you can kiss Voltron goodbye."

Allura scoffed, "You'd be willing to risk the entire universe just for some galra?"

"Yes." Hunk and Pidge responded at the same time.

Gritting her teeth, Allura grumbled, "Fine. I will attempt to be kind to... Keith... if you, Pidge, and Lance will continue with Voltron in our quest to take down the gal- Zarkon."

After Shiro also nodded in agreement they all sat down to eat through a dinner of uncomfortable silence.

. . . . . .

When Hunk and Pidge resumed their time in the workroom after dinner Pidge couldn't stop laughing.

"Hunk! That was awesome!" Pidge yelled, "That was simultaneously the scariest and most amazing thing I've seen in my entire life! Remind me not to get on your bad side." Pidge laughed until she was rolling on the floor, "Allura's face! She was so angry! I can't believe you told her to shut up! You certainly have balls, Hunk!" Pidge wiped the tears from her eyes as she continued, "Wait until I tell Lance. He'll be so proud, dude!"

Hunk blushed and shrugged throughout the one-sided conversation of Pidge recounting the confrontation to herself over and over again, each time tweaking the story a bit until it was fairly warped and involved three fights. Hunk decided it would be him and not Pidge telling the story to Lance.

After Pidge calmed down they both parted ways and went to their respective rooms, ready for the day to come.

. . . . . .

Keith woke to a knock on the door. He stayed curled up in the bed, tail tucked behind him and ears straight up to hear as much as he could. Lance groaned as he stretched upwards, mumbling "I'm coming" at the door. He flopped across the floor and unlocked the door, allowing it to slide open, temporarily blinding Keith due to the sudden flood of bright light.

"Shiro?" Lance asked, suddenly sounding very awake.

Shiro, Keith remembered, was the not-Champion. He seemed not bad though easily overwhelmed Keith and never spoke to him again. Lance seemed to like him though so Keith figured he would be kind like Hunk and short one.

"What are you doing here, man?" Lance whispered, glancing over his shoulder.

"I figured I should get to know Keith as well. Ya know, we're a team and Keith is a part of it now, too." Shiro shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck as he spoke, "I won't pick his brain for details, I just want to get to know the kid."

"It's Keith's decision but if he says yes be in the lookout room at ten. And bring some fruits and other finger food." Lance told him. Shiro nodded as Lance closed the door.

Keith sat up straight, alerting Lance to his consciousness, "We go see no-Champion today?"

Lance shrugged as he sat at the edge of the bed, "If you want to, Keith. It's all up to you." Lance ran his hand through Keith's hair as he so often did now, "It's okay if you don't want to."

"Do you no wan- me to?" Keith asked.

"Whatever you want is okay to me, Keith."

Keith sat there, readjusting at first so he was situated in Lance's lap for prime hair playing. He thought about it for a little bit, he wanted to know the not-Champion and he heard about the fruit which was delicious. "I wan- go. You go too?"

Lance nodded, "Yeah, Keith. I'll go too. We have an hour until we're supposed to meet up with him so we can do whatever you want to do."

"Lions?" Keith asked.

Lance chuckled and nodded, he grabbed the lions from their residence on the floor and activated them. He grabbed blue and placed him on Keith's head, smiling as the boy laughed and tried to see it, failing but looking adorable while doing so. They sat there, Keith once again awed by the flying lions around him. Red was perched on his shoulder happily. It seemed they had a bit of a connection. Lance just shook it off, it was too good to be true, Keith couldn't be that.

Those thoughts were taken from his mind as the green lion smacked into his chest, knocking him back on the bed. Keith gasped and rushed over to see if he was okay. Lance laughed and grabbed the green lion, throwing it up in the air so it would fly away. Keith still fussed over him though, "Keith, Keith! I'm fine! I swear! It's okay!" Lance chuckled.

Keith seemed to be okay with that though he once again situated himself in Lance's lap to prevent anymore injury to his person. Lance though it was cute but when he glanced at the clock he sighed. This hour was over far too quickly and they'd have to go talk to Shiro now.

Last time they talked it left Keith sobbing for the old Shiro, the Champion. Lance didn't want this to end with Keith sobbing as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a couple ideas for the next chapter so it might take me a bit to upload it but I'll be as quick as I can with it! I hope you liked this chapter!
> 
> Please leave a comment they give me inspiration to continue! You guys are so amazing and I hope you have a fantastic day!


	11. Chapter 11

They walked to the lookout room, Lance grimacing and Keith smiling hesitantly. If Shiro did anything to upset Keith Lance was going to be pissed. He'd become pretty protective over Keith since he'd saved him. Shiro could possibly mess up the progress, the quite large progress, that Keith had made in the past few days.

Lance turned to Keith once they reached the lookout doors, "Are you absolutely sure you're ready to talk to Shiro now?" Keith nodded, "Alright, if you're ever uncomfortable then just tell me and we can stop. You don't have to do anything you don't want to."

Keith smiled, "I know, -ance. You make no-Champion be nice. It okay, no-Champion will be fine."

Lance laughed a little and they walked in. Shiro immediately turned in his seat, he was looking out at the stars probably not certain that Keith would agree to meeting him officially. "Hey, Keith. How are you?"

Keith, though he started out acting confident to Lance shied back, holding Lance's hand tightly and shifting so he was standing slightly behind him. "I good. -Ance is nice to me. Hunk and short one make happy and teach."

Shiro couldn't help the little chuckle that slipped from his lips at hearing Keith call Pidge 'short one'. "That's great, Keith. I'm really glad you're so comfortable here. I'm glad to have you as a part of our family."

Lance knew that a large influence to this meeting was Hunk's chewing out that he heard... so much about. It was truly amazing to him that Hunk had done that. Keith seemed pleased at the family comment. "I happy too. No-Champion is friend with Hunk and small one too?"

Lance nodded, he noticed the spark of curiosity in Shiro's eyes. While Lance understood his thirst for knowledge in terms of his past, it would be frustrating not knowing about an entire chunk of your life, he was not about to let Shiro grill Keith with questions. If Keith was ready to answer questions he would.

"If you friend with Hunk and small one they make you things. They smart and nice."

Shiro laughed and nodded, "Yeah, Pidge and Hunk are the two smartest people I know."

Keith bristled a little bit, not too much but a little, "-Ance is smartest." Shiro back peddled quickly to agree with Keith, once he did that Keith relaxed a little bit and took a seat with Lance. When he began talking about the little Voltron that Pidge gifted to him Shiro finally clicked with him. Lance just sat back and watched a new relationship form, occasionally inputting his thoughts on the matter. 

They talked about funny little moments that happened and when they used up a few of those they began talking about Earth stories and fairy tales. Keith seemed very interested in those though he was very confused at first.

"Fairy tales?" Keith asked uncertainly, "I do not get. What you do with the tails?" He gently held his fluffy tail in his hands, nervously playing with the fur.

"Its a story not an actual tail. We tell them to our children to entertain them or teach them things." Shiro explained. "My favorite was always the tortoise and the hare."

Lance laughed, "Really? I always liked Beauty and the Beast. My mom used to play the old movie, not many people watch the original one anymore but that one was always my favorite. The songs were amazing!"

"How they go?" Keith asked.

Shiro and Lance looked at each other, both already preparing an entire list of fairy tales to tell Keith. Shiro went first with a few old ones that were strong on the moral aspects while Lance stuck to the lovely ones that inspired many childhood dreams. In the end, as it was expected, Keith agreed with Lance that Beauty and the Beast was better than the Tortoise and the Hare. 

Shiro grabbed a tablet and three pens, handing one pen to each of them, "Do you want to play tic-tac-toe?"

Lance smiled, he hadn't even thought to play this game with Keith. This could help advance Keith's mental skills, Keith was extraordinarily intelligent but he did spend his entire life in a cell without an education system so even small games like tic-tac-toe could help. Perhaps he should try hangman as well for spelling. They quickly explained the rules to Keith and started the game, Shiro against Keith and Lance. Lance let Keith take the lead.

Keith won with very little help from Lance so they played a few more games, same set up. Lance knew that if Keith ever went against him he would purposely lose the game. They'd have to work on that, Keith couldn't always put Lance before himself. 

Keith was getting tired so Lance turned to Shiro and said, "We're gonna go now so Keith can get some more sleep."

Keith smiled and waved goodbye to Shiro sleepily, "We talk again. No worry. Buh bye." He'd picked that up from the stories they were telling. Lance would say that whenever a character left the "scene".

Shiro laughed and waved back as they left, "Buh bye, Keith."

When they got back to the room they both flopped onto the bed. Lance pulled out a book that he'd been reading and read it to Keith, he pointed the words out to Keith to spur on the reading bit of his education. He didn't want to make learning boring at all for Keith so if he enjoyed stories that what Keith was going to get.

Eventually Keith fell asleep, his head pressed against Lance's chest. Lance carefully put the book down and settled into sleep. That was the most relaxed he'd been in a very long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been soooo long since I've updated this and I am super sorry! Also, I'm sorry for how short this chapter was but I haven't been feeling super inspired lately. I will be continuing this, the frequency of updates I can't be sure with. I'm going to be unbelievably busy until probably February but I will hopefully still be updating this during that. After I get settled when I move the updates will become closer.
> 
> Please leave a comment! They help me write more and more! 
> 
> Happy New Year! I hope 2018 will bring you all happiness!


	12. Chapter 12

Pidge finished the chair very late that night. She walked back slowly, checking over her creation to make sure it looked okay. She'd added on details and taken some away after consulting with Lance, Hunk, and surprisingly Shiro. Lance requested she put an extendable blanket in one of the arms so Keith could pull it out and cuddle with it whenever he wanted, he did truly love blanket though that came with no surprise to anyone. Lance also requested the seat have a little more padding because Keith's entire body was sore on some bad days or whenever he had to sit in one spot for too long. That was understandable considering he had been tortured for his entire life and only rescued a little over a month prior. 

The padding was made to fluff up again and provide a comfortable seat for Keith every time it got too compressed. Pidge actually got the materials required to make that from Coran after bringing it up one day.

Hunk provided snacks upon snacks of non-perishable food he had been experimenting with for Pidge to put into a compartment that would pop out of the chair with the press of a button. He helped Pidge create a mini fridge in the chair that could also store drinks and fruits for Keith that were high in the nutrition that Keith desperately needed. When Pidge came to Hunk for assistance she was greeted with an overjoyed man that eagerly agreed and started whipping up food instantly. Hunk loved keith and would do anything to make the little half-galra happy.

Shiro was an unexpected and very last minute addition. He came running, tablet in hand, to the hanger after being directed there by Hunk. He was practically vibrating with excitement as he held out the device. "Can you put this into the chair? Keith loves it." Shiro smiled, "Can you make it so he can control what stories play and which games? Lance and I think it can help with his education." Pidge held out her hand and let Shiro drop the device down onto it as he thanked he profusely, not shutting up until Pidge rolled her eyes and told him to chill so she could do this.

So here sat the completed product. A silver and blue chair with red highlights that Keith would like, blankets and food and games equipped. There was a small camera to be installed behind Lance's chair so he or any of them could pull up a feed when it was on and check on Keith in there. there was also another screen on the back of Lance's chair so Keith could pulled up a feed of any of the rest of Voltron. Pidge predicted it would be featuring Lance's face the majority of the time.

The safety features Pidge installed were borderline excessive but in case of emergency Pidge hoped and prayed it would keep him safe. Keith had been through enough in his lifetime, she didn't want him to have to deal with any more.

Pidge let out a deep yawn and checked her watch, two hours till she would normally wake up, she supposed it was about time to go to bed. Tomorrow she's introduce the chair to Keith and Lance.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lance woke up to a knocking sound on his door. He groaned and rubbed his hand over his eyes before he looked down to see a fuzzy mop of hair with two big ear poking out of it. Keith. AKA the most adorable thing in the entire universe. He kissed Keith on the top of his head and let the door open quietly. Pidge stood there, about to say something before Lance shushed her and pointed down at Keith.

Pidge rolled her eyes but remained quiet, "It's done."

Lance raised an eyebrow, trying to remember what it was but his sleepy mind pulled up nothing, "What's done?"

Pidge crossed her arms, "The chair. Ya know, the one I told you about a week ago. For Keith."

Lance's mouth opened, "Ooohh. Yeah. Keith's asleep right now bu-"

Just then the person on his chest shifted and blinked his purple eyes open. "-Ance?" Came a tired murmur.

"Hey, sleeping beauty." Lance smiled, "You have a nice rest?"

Keith nodded as he stretched out. "Nice rest." He agreed, his eyes focused and he finally noticed Pidge, "Pidge. You here?"

"Yup, Keith. We've got a surprise for you! I think you'll like it." Pidge grinned, "You've just got to come to the hanger, Lance, Hunk, Shiro, and I have been preparing this for you!"

"Me?" Keith asked, waking up for real.

Lance smiled and hugged Keith, "Yes, for you. Pidge is your friend and she wanted to give you a little gift. I think you're gonna love it."

Keith stood up with Lance and nodded, "Okay. Let's go?" Lance chuckled, grabbing Keith's extended hand and following a snorting Pidge to the hanger to see Keith's chair for the first time.

Pidge stopped them both right before they entered, "Alright, Keith, close your eyes."

Keith looked nervously up at Lance tightening his grip. Lance gave him a little reassuring smiled, prompting Keith to close his eyes and let Lance guide him into the hanger. They all walked in, Keith under Lance's watchful eye. They stood there, right before Blue in all her glory. "Alright, Keith, open your eyes."

Keith blinked his eyes open, allowing them to adjust to the light. He gasped, "Blue?" Keith rested his hand on the lion's huge paw, "Big Blue!" They let Keith get excited over Blue for a bit before taking him inside the gigantic lion. 

Both Lance and Keith saw the chair at the same time. Pidge smiled, "This is your's, Keith. Now you and Lance can go fly together! Do you want to sit?"

Keith looked stunned and nodded, being led to the chair by Lance. Keith sat down and grinned. "I comtabl'!"

"That's great, Keith! Look at this," Pidge said, showing him the works of the chair. The food, the blanket, and the tablet were all received happily with great excitement. Pidge thought Keith wouldn't get more excited, "Lance, go sit in your chair." Lance complied, "Now, Keith press that button, yup, and say 'Lance.'"

"-Ance!" Keith yelled, a bit louder than Pidge expected. 

Lance's face popped up on the screen behind his chair and Keith gasped, "That's my -ance!"

Lance laughed, when Keith said his name Keith's face also popped up on Lance's screen. "Hey, Keith!" Lance's waved. 

Keith waved frantically, "Hi, -ance! Hello!" 

"To turn that off, all you have to do is press the button again and say, 'buh-bye.'" Pidge explained.

Keith looked up at her, tears forming in his eyes, he pointed at the screen, "But... But -ance is in there?"

"No, Keith. I'm right here, you can turn it off if you want. You don't have to though," Lance explained, peeking his head to look at Keith. Keith relaxed and nodded, pressing the button and uttering a soft buh-bye.

The screen went turned off and Keith whimpered a little bit. Lance rushed back to greet him and calm him before he could rise into a panic attack. "Hey, buddy, it okay. I'm right here!" He hugged Keith close to his chest and let the boy listen. Pidge looked a bit shaken, "It's okay, Pidge. He'll be alright. I'm gonna take him for a little flight, alright. If anyone asks he and I are flying with Blue and we'll be right back, okay?"

Pidge nodded, gulping a bit, "Alright. H-Have fun, you guys."

Pidge exited quickly. Lance pressed a little kiss to Keith's cheek, "It's alright, Keith. You didn't know, it's alright. But now you know and you know that it's all okay." Lance smiled as he hugged Keith, he could feel the little sobs racking the boy, his ears pressed all the way back on his head, "Ya know, I'm very proud of you, Keith. You are so, so strong and so, so smart and I love you."

Keith sniffled and rubbed his head against Lance's chest, "I -ove you too." 

Lance smiled and squeezed Keith quickly before letting go and pulling back a little, keeping Keith in contact with him while doing so. "Do you want to go flying? We can go out into space and you can see the stars all around you. Blue would love to and I would love to take you." Keith nodded. "Alright, let's get you strapped down here," Lance pulled the soft seat belt from one side to the other, lightly strapping Keith in but making sure it wasn't tight enough to make Keith feel trapped at all. "Nice, now I'll be just up there until we get situated but you remember what you can do to see me?"

"Push but'n an' say -ance!" Keith nodded.

"Good, you're great, Keith! I'll be just up there," Lance explained, taking a seat in his chair.

Keith rapidly pushed the button and gasped out a small, "-Ance!"

Lance smiled when he saw Keith's face pop up on the screen, he tried to display the calmest face he possibly could. Keith took a few deep breaths, calming quickly. He pulled out the blanket, just like Pidge showed him, and hugged it close, never taking his eyes off Lance's face. Lance chatted with him the entire way, telling him all about the new constellations he's seen since he left Earth, also the old constellations he used to know. He reminisced about the astrology class they all had to take in the Garrison.

He'd hated the class at the time, he loved the stars but memorizing them was not his favorite thing to do, especially with the pilot training he loved so much. Now, he found himself missing those classes, missing his B grade that pissed him off so much at the time, missing the stupid teacher that he thought plotted to make his life a living hell, missing his mother that he complained to about those teachers, missing his fami-

Lance found himself choking up and quickly tried to change the subject, hoping Keith hadn't seen the tears in his eyes, "Oh, we're here. We can just let this float." Lance rasped out.

Lance got out of his seat, walking back to unlock Keith. Keith jumped out and latched onto Lance, "It okay. You okay. You so smart. I -ove you." So Keith had seen. 

Keith awkwardly rubbed Lance's back doing whatever he could to cheer up the now crying boy. Lance smiled a bit through his tears and pulled back a little bit. He wiped his tears away and chuckled, "Thanks, Keith. I really needed that. I- Thank you, Keith."

Lance laughed a bit as Keith puffed up, his ears rising and his tail curling a bit and wagging, "Do you want to go see the front?"

Keith nodded and stood, holding Lance's hand like he was Lance's lifeline, a new confidence coming out of him. He got his first glimpse of the stars from Blue and gasped, "Pretty."

"It is, it's very pretty, Keith." Lance smiled, this day was turning out to be pretty good.

. . . . . . . . . .

Pidge wiped off her hands on her pants, she had spent the past half hour working on a mini project to get over seeing the precursor to a panic attack in Keith. She had only seen him have a panic attack once, really, and now that she knew Keith seeing him hurt made her feel horrible. She could only hope Lance had managed to take care of him.

Allura ran into her work room puffing, "Where are Lance and the half-galra?"

"Lance and Keith are out flying in Blue. Lance said that they'll be back in a bit. Why?" Pidge asked, placing her hands on her hips and glaring a little bit. She really didn't want to deal with this today. 

"I can't just have my blue paladin running amok with a galra. We are in a war and I need to know where all the paladins are at all time." Allura glowered.

Pidge sighed, "Alright, Allura. But we're just kids and we all need a little break every now and then. Keith and Lance both really needed this and they are within a safe distance to the castle, they wouldn't go too far. They said they'll be back soon. Maybe you should learn to trust your paladins, after all, we are in a war."

Allura glared at her a bit then softened, "I am sorry. You are right. I understand you all need breaks, this is far too much to place on all of your shoulders. I just wish you weren't dragged into this. This is not your fight."

Pidge was surprised, she had never truly seen Allura like this. Pidge walked up to her slowly, placing a hand on her arm, "This is our fight. Our home is in this universe too and you are our friend. You deserve breaks too, you are not much older than all of us."

Allura laughed dryly, "I am ten thousand years older than you."

"You spent those ten thousand years in stasis, you are our age. You just had your people taken from you, it's understandable that you are stressed and sad and angry, furious, but you can't take that out on Keith or on any of us. Take it out on Zarkon. You're the smartest person I know and I know that you can beat the son of a bitch." Pidge smiled.

Allura let out a little chuckle and pulled Pidge in close, "Thank you, Pidge. You are a great friend and amazing paladin. I do not know what I would do without you here."

Pidge hugged back, "I don't know either, Allura. I'm pretty great."

They both burst into much needed laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been two months since I last updated this!!! I am so sorry! This isn't abandoned, I promise! It has been sooo hectic but I think I've finally gotten settled here and I'll be posting hopefully on a relatively regular schedule. 
> 
> You guys have all been so nice and I love seeing your comments, you've helped me through this and encouraged me to continue! 
> 
> Here's a little feel good chapter, right about now I think we all might be needing this a little bit. It's been a rough year so far. 
> 
> I don't know if any of you guys are down in Florida or anywhere else where school shootings or really any shootings have happened but if you are I am here for you. The trauma that has happened is devastating and we all must stick together. 
> 
> You guys are all so strong and this world has been really tough on us but we're all here together and we must unite to strengthen each other. I haven't ever really talked about these issues on this account but it is so hard not to anymore, not to speak out on what is happening. 
> 
> You guys are my heroes, my muses, my inspirations and you all are beautiful and smart and amazing and important. I cherish all of you and always will so if any of you are having a tough time please feel free to talk to me. I'm not perfect and I don't know what all I can do but if you ever just want to talk and let it all out, just ask and I'll chat with you. My tumblr is https://www.tumblr.com/blog/sir--nerdalot and you can chat with me whenever. 
> 
> Stay strong.


	13. Chapter 13

Shiro tossed and turned in his sleep, gasping and grunting as his dreams attacked him. Dreams... These didn't feel like dreams they were too real. Memories. Somehow these were worse than his nightmares.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro's arms were held by to clawed hands and there was a growling sound in his ear, "You're lucky you're the Champion. Still, you shouldn't done what you did. Stupid beast, have fun in the cell with the whore."

Darkness encased him and the smell of waste assaulted his nose, a bucket was thrown in and the galra that held him snickered, "At least you get a bucket." He was pushed forward, falling on his knees as the cell door clanked shut and echoed in his ears. Echoing over and over in the empty cell. The heavy footsteps of the galra gradually got quieted until Shiro could no longer hear them, it was gone.

A rasping sound issued from the corner, "Who's there?" Shiro asked, curling his hand into a fist he was no stranger to fighting anymore. No one responded. Shiro yelled again, "Who's there?!"

Something shifted and Shiro felt his heart constrict, why did he have to aggravate it? What if this time he couldn't win? He couldn't even see, what was he thinking? Shiro stumbled back as the thing moved forward, slowly crawling into the light, then it stopped and whimpered. Whimpered? He couldn't have heard that right. If the Galra were going to lock him in a cell with a horrible monster the creature certainly wouldn't be whimpering. Was this a prisoner like him? "Hey," he said in a soft voice, "I won't hurt you. I promise."

Shiro doubted the creature could even understand him. While many aliens he had encountered could understand him he didn't think this one would. Shiro inched forward, holding his hands out in peace, "It's okay. Please, I just want to see if you're okay. I know first aid."

The creature moved and Shiro stopped, staring into the shadows. Slowly, a face appeared in the light, it was... human? A teenage boy, no older than 15. "Can you understand me? Do you speak english?"

The boy flinched back, whimpering out a strange language that Shiro had only ever heard from some of the galra prisoners he had been forced to fight. The boy just about definitely didn't understand him then.

"Shh, shh, it's okay. Please, come closer. I need to see if you require any aid," Shiro whispered calmly. The boy may not understand his words but perhaps he'd understand his tone and gestures.

Shiro could see the boy pale and gulp as he inched forward. Shiro held back a gasp when the boy came into the light, he had fluffy ears and a long tail, so not entirely human after all. He seemed almost like a galra but not completely, was he a new species that Shiro hadn't encountered yet or was he a hybrid? The boy noticed Shiro's gaze and tensed, curling up a little smaller and scooting a bit farther out of the light.

"I won't hurt you." Shiro promised. He pointed to himself, "I'm Shiro. I want to help."

The boy looked behind him, eyes widening and his whimpering increasing in intensity. Shiro yanked as he turned around and saw a doctor, "Hello KE2603 and Champion. Why don't we get started?"

The dream changed. A huge galra guard was inches away from his face, teeth bared, "Well, Champion, how have you been enjoying your little treat? Hopefully he's been entertaining you well enough."

Shiro growled back at the galra, "He's been fine. You lay a finger on him and I'll rip your damn throat out."

The galra let out a laugh, "Oh you will? How hilarious. You are a puny human, you couldn't even touch me."

"I am the Champion. I promise you, I will kill you." Shiro wouldn't let anyone touch him. Kogane, Shiro called him. It started when he heard a different galra refer to Keith as KE2603. He took the K and added -ogane so they could be Broganes. Kogane didn't understand but seemed happy enough at the change of name. 

"Bring him in!" The guard yelled, Shiro's blood ran cold. 

Another galra came in dragging Kogane behind him. Shiro looked at Kogane, he was beaten and bloody. "No." Shiro gasped. Kogane looked up at him, "You'll be okay, Kogane." He nodded, understanding the words.

The galra guard laughed and punched Kogane in the stomach, causing him to double over and heave. "Stop!" Shiro yelled, thrashing against the galra holding him. "Don't touch him!" 

More punches landed but Kogane's expression didn't really change, it was as if he was used to it. Of course, he was. Shiro screamed until his throat was raw, he watched as Kogane was beaten to within an inch of his life. The galra stopped, all three of them laughing. Shiro felt something inside him snap, he was the Champion, he would kill them. None of those guards were ready when Shiro got out.

The dream shifted again and Shiro was nursing a cut on his right arm. Kogane stared at him, sorrow in his eyes, "M' faul' I so'y." 

Shiro shook his head, Kogane was in much worse shape than Shiro was, "It's not your fault, Kogane. Your english is certainly getting better. I'm proud." Shiro laughed, "At least I still have my arm."

Kogane's ears fell and he looked down, "You hur'."

"A little. I've had worse. We need to get you fixed up, Kogane. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." Shiro sighed, "I'm so sorry."

"I fi'." Kogane shrugged.

"You know what, Kogane?" Shiro asked as he began taking care of Kogane's wounds, "You remind me a lot of my cousin. He was just like you. You're both very smart and kind and strong." Kogane began shaking his head but Shiro stopped him, "No, you're my family now, Kogane. I'll never leave you."

Kogane smiled up at him, such belief and loyalty in his eyes that it hurt Shiro to see him. When Shiro got out of this place he was taking Kogane with him.

The next time the dream moved he was pinned to a table, he remembered that, he remembered this moment before. The druids entered and began working on him. Shiro let out another scream in pain, his arm, oh god his arm. He couldn't take it, it hurt. Haggar stood above him chanting something before she stopped and looked down at him, "You are going to be our perfect warrior, Champion." She sneered.

The dream fell dark and Shiro heard the crown screaming, "Champion! Champion! Champion!" A galra announcer threw his newly metal arm into the air and declared him the winner of this battle. His eyes couldn't focus and his head was pounding, he wouldn't be able to stay upright for long. His vision blurred as a guard forcefully took his arm and yanked him back to his cell. The guard pulled out the key and Shiro could see Kogane's face through the bars. 

Shiro was pushed forward as the guard behind him was knocked out and Kogane whimpered. A person in a hood grabbed Shiro's metal arm, "We must leave."

Shiro's couldn't think, he couldn't make sense of what was happening. Kogane stretched out his hand, "N-no leaf? I wit' you?"

The man behind him growled, "We don't have time. We need to get you out of here." 

"I- We need to bring him." Shiro protested as he was yanked along. "I can't leave him." His words came out slurred but understandable.

Kogane wailed, sobbing as Shiro was pulled away, "Hey!" The man yelled, "You stay quiet! If you alert anyone we'll get caught and the Champion will get hurt! Do you want the Champion to get injured because of you?" Kogane shook his head, tears still leaking down his face, "Good, then stay quiet."

"No, I can't leave him." Shiro groaned.

"Shut up!" 

"Who are you?" Shiro glared at the man.

"I am here to rescue you. My name is Lernol."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro woke up gasping and feeling sick. He left Keith there. He left Keith there and then completely forgot about him. He- He abandoned him. Shiro stumbled out of his room and leaned against the wall, heaving. He still had blank spaces in his memory but he was used to that. He wasn't used to the sickening knowledge that he didn't fight harder to free Keith. 

Shiro banged his head against the wall, how could Keith even stand to be near him? Keith was sobbing, begging Shiro to let him out but Shiro was too banged up to argue when the man, Lernol, pulled him away. Who was Lernol? He was the man who freed him so why couldn't Shiro remember him until now?

It was all too much! Shiro wasn't perfect, he'd never be perfect. He had to lead Voltron and he had to make it up to Keith, he had to find out about his past and he had to save Earth. 

They were all kids, Lance and Hunk were only 18, Pidge only 16, Keith, probably only 17, but he never even had a chance at a childhood. Allura, Coran, and himself were the oldest but still, he was only 25. This war was being fought by teenagers and twenty year olds. Shiro wasn't sure that they'd all make it out.

Footsteps interrupted his depressing chain of thoughts and he looked up, "Shiro? Are you okay?"

Lance was standing there, Keith standing next to him. "Keith- I-" Shiro rubbed his eyes, "I'm so sorry. I- I'm horrible."

Keith sat down on the floor next to him and placed his hand on Shiro's drawing Shiro's attention and attempting to calm him down, "Br-Broganes?"

Shiro laughed and wiped the tears from his face. He held Keith's hand and nodded, "Broganes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shiro finally knows! I was debating whether to add this in now or later but I put it in earlier because I added something in for him to find out later. So I changed things up a bit with this chapter. The ages are different than in the show, Pidge, Hunk, and Lance are all one year older while Keith is one year younger. Also instead of Ulaz rescuing Shiro I made up a character. 
> 
> Your comments on the last chapter made me so happy so I quickly got to writing this one, also to make up to you guys for going on a two month hiatus. So sorry! 
> 
> I hope you guys liked this chapter! It wasn't as fluffy as what I was about to write but I hope the little bit at the end made up for the Shiro!whump.


	14. Chapter 14

Lance stood there, confused but happy for the two Broganes, as they hugged each other. He didn't really understand what was happening but what he got from a brief analysis of the situation was that Shiro remembered something and he and Keith bonded over it, however traumatic what he remembered was. Lance wouldn't push him, he knew sometimes you had to push people to talk in order to make them feel better but in this situation he felt it wouldn't be appropriate. 

The two sat there, holding hands with happy tears running down their faces, for a good while. Lance felt his heart warm as he watched the display, a few tears leaking from his own eyes. Eventually Keith and Shiro let go of each other and Shiro asked, "Would you like to be called Keith Kogane? Since Keith is your first name now maybe you'd prefer Kogane to be your last name?"

Keith nodded, "Keith Kogane is good." He looked up at Lance for verification of that and Lance quickly nodded in affirmation.

Shiro stood, helping Keith to his feet as he did so, "What were you guys going to do?"

Lance smiled, "We were just going to go to the pool. Keith has never gone swimming before, I thought I'd teach him. Do you want to join?"

Shiro nodded happily and they all began to walk to the pool. After his nightmares, or rather his memories, a swimming break would be very welcome. Shiro grew up around the sea, always swimming and goofing around in the water. When he went to the Garrison his favorite activity was to swim laps in the swimming pool during his free time. Normally his free time didn't coincide with many others so he got the whole Olympic sized pool to himself.

Lance had similar fond memories of swimming. His family lived only a five minute walk from the beach so he'd go down there with his friends all the time to just chill during the summer. He wasn't as fond of swimming pools though. It wasn't that he hated them, rather it was that he preferred the beach. He loved the warm feeling of the sun against his face and the sand over his feet. The salt water and the natural waves always had a mutually calming and exciting effect on him. Pools just didn't have that in his mind. They were more sterile, less natural or emotional. But in the castle they didn't have a beach, they had a pool and Lance could have fun in a pool for Keith's sake.

Keith had never swum before in his entire life. He had plenty experience with water. One form of torture that the Galra loved was that with water, drowning, dripping, shocking, it was all funny to them. It was getting better for him thanks to Lance. He had managed to not only take showers, but also he had taken three baths in his time being here. The first one Lance helped him with. It was the first wash he'd gotten since being rescued and Lance had been very careful. Keith wasn't stupid, he didn't whine or cry about it when Lance gently poured water over his head, making sure to avoid hitting his face. He knew at the time that he had to be careful around people he didn't know, now he knew Lance and knew Lance would never hurt him.

They arrived at the pool and they all grabbed pairs of swimming shorts from the closet. Keith wore a red one that Lance tore a whole in the back of so his tail could stick out, Lance wore a blue on, and Shiro wore a black one. Shiro slid in, flinching a little as the water touched his Galran arm but when nothing happened he deemed it to be safe and began to tread water. Keith and Lance took a bit more time. They started out on the shallower end, Lance stepping in, showing Keith that the water would only come up to the tops of his ankles.

Keith dipped a toe in and flinched back, "Sorry, Keith. That water is a little bit cold, I forgot to warn you." Lance said sheepishly, "Don't worry, though. It will quickly warm up as you move around in here."

Allowing his right foot to become emerged in water, Keith stepped in. His foot was cold, his foot was very cold and he wasn't sure that he liked this. Then he saw Lance's face, there was an encouraging, hopeful smile that made Keith want to jump in if it would make him proud. Keith grabbed onto Lance's arm, taking a few more nervous steps in until the water was up to his knees. 

Shiro had come over to join them, offering an arm to Keith, which was latched onto fairly quickly. Keith treaded in a tiny bit more and before he knew it the water had reached his hips and was still so cold. Shiro shot a worried look toward Lance as Keith's grip got tighter and tighter, his knuckles going white.

"Breathe in, hold it, and out. Okay? It's okay, if you want to get out we can." Lance assured him. Rubbing his shoulder softly in order to calm the half-galra down a bit. 

Keith breathed slowly, trying his best to calm himself so he could make Lance proud. Shiro smiled at him and breathed with him, "You're doing so well Keith."

He was ready, he was ready. Keith walked forward a bit and let the water rise up to his shoulders, he was okay. Lance and Shiro were here and they wouldn't let anything bad happen to him. With them he was safe. "Let's start with the basics, just wading around a bit." Lance instructed.

Keith reluctantly let go of Shiro and Lance and moved hesitantly through the water. This was... nice? If wasn't as horrible as he remembered the galra had made it, it felt good. He could get used to this. "I like." He told them.

Shiro and Lance beamed, their smiles lighting up the room. Shiro spoke first, "We are so proud, Keith! I'm glad you like it!"

Lance chuckled and rubbed Keith's shoulder, "I can't wait until we go back to Earth, Keith. I'll show you the beach, it's warmer than the pool." He turned around and chatted with Shiro about which beaches they were going to take Keith to first. Shiro wanted to take him to one in Japan but Lance wanted to take him to Cuba to meet his family and have fun in the sun.

Keith grinned. Then he realized how far they'd gotten. The water was up to his chin. He panicked, pulling his legs up to his chest to protect them, then he was under. His head was under and he could feel it like he was there again. The galra were there, holding him down and laughing at him as they hurt him, as his lungs filled with water and the bubbles stopped escaping his mouth.

He remembered back to the first time it happened. He was young, he knew he'd never know how young as time didn't feel real when he was stuck in that cell. They'd brought in a tub of ice water and he was glad, it was time for a wash, he'd be clean; cold but clean. They put him in the tub and began to rub the grime from his skin, leaving raw patches were they scrubbed far too hard. The began to wash his shoulders when they pushed to hard, he slipped, his body sliding down and his head going under. He could see the galra above him laugh as he struggled to get up. They tightened their grips, claws sinking into his skin as he thrashed. 

His throat grew sore from the screaming and the dirty ice water. His vision began to go black when they yanked him back up again. After that it became a ritual, every wash was followed by that but it only ever happened when he was washed. Until that changed as well. They would do it for fun, forcing water into his breaths as he resigned himself to the torture. 

Only, he didn't want that now. He'd gotten a taste of the good life and he would not give it away. He thrashed, kicking, his vision fading. He screamed, no oxygen left and very little bubbles were rising from his mouth. He felt arms hook around him and pull him up but he was already half-way unconscious. 

"Keith!" Lance screamed when he saw the disruption in the water. How long had he been down there? He divided, pulling the boy up and getting smacked and kicked a bit in the process. He wasn't breathing. Keith wasn't breathing. Keith was not breathing. 

Lance pumped his chest, his emotions blurring his vision but he couldn't let that effect him. He needed to save Keith. Pumping and pumping and pumping, the water needed to come out. 

Shiro stood there, he couldn't do anything, he had to let Lance work. His arms began glowing as the emotions got to his head, he was terrified. He just got him back, his memories, his brother in all but blood. He'd spent months with Keith and only half a day remembering them. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen.

It wasn't working. Lance became frantic, he knew Keith's chest was going to be bruised after this but having a bruised chest was better than being dead. Keith couldn't- god, he-

He convulsed, water spilling from his mouth as he came back. He sucked in air, his ears shock straight. Fear in his eyes. Lance let out a harsh sob and pulled Keith into a tight hug, "I was so worried. You weren't-" his voice broke.

Keith let tears fall from his own eyes as he hugged Lance back. He felt a warmness at his side and startled before realizing it was just Shiro coming to comfort them as well.

They stayed like that for a nice long while, long enough for them all to calm down, long enough for Keith to begin to breathe without the pain of doing so. Lance rubbed behind Keith's ears and whispered encouragements. 

They pulled back and Shiro suggested, "Do you want to go to the sauna? To help us relax?"

Lance nodded and stood, "Do you want me to carry you, Keith?" He asked, his arms outstretched and ready. Keith nodded so he bent down and scooped the small boy into his arms, still shocked at how light he was.

Keith had fallen asleep, still breathing, in his arms. Lance couldn't help the relieved smile that was brought to his face as they entered the sauna. A little steam could help them all relax. Keith didn't wake up when Lance sat down, instead he snuggled closer. Shiro looked at the two happily, Keith was good for Lance and Lance was good for Keith. They needed each other so much more than they probably even realized.

Shiro wasn't a fool, he could see the look in Lance's eyes when they were on Keith. That boy was in love. Genuinely in love. Shiro chuckled, it was adorable. Keith, Keith probably didn't really know about love, not real love anyway. He had been through so much and he had never really witnessed a loving relationship. Perhaps, when Keith was completely ready and much better and the war was won, perhaps he and Lance could see for themselves how much they loved each other. 

There Lance was, combing his fingers through Keith's choppy mullet, occasionally petting behind the big purple ears, happily oblivious to the increasing war efforts around them. There were so many battles coming, too many. After it all, nothing is fair in love and war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a kinda on time update! I've been trying to start writing this chapter but I just came down with what I wanted to do like ten minutes ago and wrote this up as fast as I could before I lost it. Upcoming there's going to be a couple realizations and some hopefully unexpected turns...?
> 
> I can't believe we have over 500 kudos! I am so grateful for all of you! It is so heartwarming to see how many of you like this story and whenever I see those updates that you have commented something so kind it makes my day so much better! I'll really try to update this more often for you guys!


	15. Chapter 15

Lance sat with Keith next to him in the kitchen as Hunk whipped up his newest creation and Pidge explained to them what she was working on at the moment. Keith had come so far, they'd been going and almost daily excursions in Blue and Keith seemed to be acclimating to the inside of the lion. Allura was slowly but surely (well, hopefully at least) getting better at handling Keith. They still had their moments but years of hating the Galra doesn't go away in an instant, even if Keith wasn't an evil Galra and was completely harmless to them.

Keith was playing around with a small orb english learning device that Pidge had imagined up for him. It would show an action or a thing and then Keith would have to try and name it, if he succeeded it would congratulate him with a small treat but if he messed up it would play a sad tune and go onto the next word. Not only did it do that but when it wasn't acting as a learning device it would display interesting holograms of creatures playing around and explain what was going on in their habitat.

Lance laughed as two otters appeared over the orb, swimming and goofing around. He rested his hand on Keith's head, ruffling his long hair, they would need to cut that soon. He was about to say something when Coran's voice boomed over the speakers, "Paladins, get your lions ready, we are needed urgently by a coalition colony on the planet Riechsfior!"

Hunk, Pidge, and Lance gulped and looked down at Keith who was already pocketing his orb and getting ready to go. Was Keith ready to experience battle? Sure, they had trained for this and sure they had set up precautions so Keith wouldn't even need to know that the battle was going on around them but Lance couldn't help but feel worried. He didn't know what he'd do if Keith had a breakdown in the middle of the battle. 

Lance took Keith's hand in his and began to head down the hall. They stood in Lance's room, Lance slipped on his suit and helped Keith get into his, it was basically Lance's suit except with a special helmet that wouldn't hurt his ears and a special extension that wouldn't hurt his tail. Well, that and it was more purple than blue, seemed appropriate.

Carefully, Lance got Keith situated in his seat and squatted in front of him, "Alright, Keith. Don't worry, this is just another practice, okay? You know what to do if you want to see me and you have all your stuff set up. Don't worry about any bright lights or loud noises, just practice. I'm going to be up there, okay? Good." Lance gave Keith's hand one last squeeze then turned away and got seated in Blue. 

He took off, following Hunk and Pidge as they sped down to meet Allura and Shiro at the battle. Lance looked up at the corner of his screen to look at Keith, he seemed to be doing fine, he was reading a book that Lance had gotten him, blissfully unaware to the chaos going on around him. Keith's ear twitched in the confines of his helmet and Keith tried to butt his head against his chair to itch it, causing Lance to snort at the display of annoyance. They would need to fix that up.

Riechsfior came into sight and Lance scowled; grey, purple, and red space crafts swarmed like bees around the colony. Fires were exploding into view as more and more strikes hit the city. It seemed to be a relatively minor attack, there were no large space crafts in the sky that held the higher ups of the galran military, only small fighters jets. This would be an easy fight.

Lance surged forward, gracefully taking the first line of ships as the others advanced on those closer to the colony. However, for every one that he destroyed, four more seemed to appear from the skies. What was this?

Keith raised his eyes from the pages of his book where it was previously focused. He gasped when he saw what was going on out of the craft. The recognized this strategy. One of the generals that used to... visit... him in his cell would constantly boast to the guards of his unique form of attack that involved deception and hundreds of ships. This strategy was said to lure his opponents into a feeling of ease before striking them with the big guns that he would keep hidden afar.

Keith waved his arms, trying to get Lance's attention from where it was focused on the battle ahead, "-Ance! -Ance!"

Lance shook his head, "In a minute, Keith. I'm a little busy right now but I'll be able to talk to you in a second."

Keith sighed, exasperated, "No! -Ance need listen now!" He tried to say important but the word was caught in his mouth and came out sounding more like, "motanp!"

"Keith, not now, okay, in a second! I'm sorry, right now I'm really busy, alright!" Lance groaned.

The small purple half-galra scowled, he was trying to explain something important! Any moment now General Tekrere would be appearing in his ship and firing on the Lions with his special metal separating gun that was super powered by quintessence. Why wasn't Lance listening?!

Keith looked down at the belt that had him secured in his seat. He knew that the only way he'd be able to inform Lance was to show him, and to do that he would need to get up to the front and show him. However, the lion rocked and jolted around as it fought, Keith felt the fear and anxiety build up, he needed to warn Lance and he needed to do that now.

Gripping tightly to his seat, Keith unclipped the belt that held him and fell forward with a hard thud as the lion was hit on the side. He shook himself off and stood up, walking hesitantly to the front and yanking to controls away from Lance. "Keith, what are you doing? You're going to get hurt!"

The lion harshly spun to the side as Keith maneuvered it to face where he knew Tekrere would be coming from. Keith made the view zoom in, showing the craft that was hidden a distance away, "-ook!"

Lance gasped, "What? How- We need to tell the others." Lance looked over to Keith who was making a very clear 'I told you so' face. "Keith, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you but right now you need to sit down and get strapped in again. We're in for a rocky ride."

Keith complied, happy that Lance finally listened to him, albeit after Keith forced him to.

"Allura, Shiro, it's a trap. There's some huge ship out in the distance that is coming right at us. We need to get out of here or form Voltron!" Lance yelled into his helmet.

"We can't leave the colony undefended, form Voltron!" Shiro shouted back. 

Keith watched in amazement as the lions flew together and joined to form one great beast. It was truly a sight to behold and a great feeling to be a part of. However, Keith couldn't help but wonder if even Voltron could hold up to that ship. 

Voltron surged forward, readying to attack the ship. Keith closed his eyes and tightened his grip on the blanket, unable to watch just in case something bad was about to happen.

Lance's lion struck the ship in a hard kick first, it dented the ship and knocked it off course. Quickly, guns on the side were focused on him and small jets encompassed them. Pidge and Allura worked together, hacking down the small jets that began to bombard them. It was nearly impossible to keep the ship off it's course and away from the small colony when hundreds of small jets were pelting them from all sides.

Hunk's cannon was brought out and slammed against the ship's exit where the jets were coming out of, effectively stopping the flow. They began to hit harder and harder, denting the guns on the side and making them useless. Keith peeked and saw the large guns focus on them and let out a shriek when they fired.

Keith saw the lions being ripped apart and cried out, this couldn't be happening! This couldn't happen to them!

Keith let out a hard, loud scream and released the emotion that he felt.

\- - - -

Allura couldn't believe this was happening. This was supposed to be an easy battle to save a small colony from minor galran forces. Somehow it resulted in Voltron being ripped apart at the seams. 

She was beginning to give up hope when Red all the sudden failed on her. This was the end, Red wasn't responding to Allura's commands and Allura could not longer feel the connection between them, at least not as strong as she used to. Red somehow, wasn't dead however.

The great lion roared, and swung at the ship, hitting the guns and destroying them and the dangerous rays that were ripping them apart. The guns power built up and exploded outward, instead directing the separation on the galran craft and disassembling it. A flurry of voices filled her ears as Red once again shut down, becoming limp on the arm of Voltron, "Allura, how did you do that?" "Did you see that, you've unlocked new features on Red?" "Good job, Allura!" "You've reached a next level connection with Red, Allura!"

"I... I didn't." Allura murmured in shock.

"What didn't you do?" Shiro asked as they began flying back to the Castle after assuring that the people were okay.

Allura tried to get Red to connect with her but she couldn't, "I wasn't in control of Red when she did that."

There was a tense moment of silence.

"What do you mean?" Shiro asked, all of them listening in apprehension.

Allura cleared her throat, trying to ignore the emotion filled pools in her eyes, "I've lost my connection with Red. She won't listen to me anymore. I'm not... she's rejected me as her paladin."

"Wait, if you weren't in control of Red when that happened then who was?" Pidge asked.

"I don't know."

\- - - - 

Lance paused in shock as he listened to Allura, her revelation made him think back to something that had happened weeks ago with Keith and mini-Red. Could Keith...?

Lance looked behind him at the now sleeping half-Galra, _dios mío_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I've updated. So much stuff has been happening and I've just sorta been in a slump. To put it into perspective, I've been feeling so crappy that I still haven't seen the newest season of Voltron because I've been feeling so down. I can't promise regular updates but I'll certainly try harder to publish new chapters with less than a four month gap. 
> 
> I think that I just needed the world to stop for a few months as more and more stuff in my school and life have been occurring, I have honestly no idea what I'm even doings right now but I know that I don't want to put you guys through four months of waiting again because that was pretty stupid and hypocritical of me.
> 
> Anyway, I'm trying to deal with the stuff happening in my life right now and felt that now that I'm feeling a bit better I should update this. 
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter! Thank you for dealing with me despite the long wait!


	16. Chapter 16

The second that they landed in the castle Lance jumped out of his seat and scooped Keith up, taking him to their room to 1) allow the exhausted half-galra to rest and 2) try to last as long as he could until the others caught on and would begin to bombard Keith with questions. Lance was still trying to process this new realization and what it would mean for them.

Lance was worried enough with just having Keith ride along with him during fights in Blue. The idea that Keith would have to pilot his own lion, fight by himself, it was making anxiety build up in Lance. Of course, only thirty minutes after laying Keith down in bed, someone came knocking. Lance slowly opened the door and saw Pidge who had a very curious expression on her face, "Come in, but be quiet, Keith's sleeping."

Pidge nodded and she took a seat in the corner of the room farthest from where Keith was resting, "So-"

"Before you start asking questions, promise me that you won't tell anyone right now. Not even Hunk," Lance demanded.

Pidge sighed and responded, "Sure, I promise, but don't interrupt me again, Lance or I'll make it so you only get cold showers." Lance chuckled and promised not to, "So, it's Keith, right? The person Red is now loyal to."

Lance glanced over at the purple boy in the bed, "I think so. I'm about 99 percent sure."

Sucking in a breath, Pidge shook her head, "That's not great." That Lance was the only thing 100 percent sure of. He was still trying to plan out ways to make it so Keith wouldn't have to pilot Red, at least not yet, not until he was ready. "What are you gonna do about it? You're gonna do something, right?"

"Ugh!" Lance ran a hand through his hair as he groaned, "I don't know, all I know is we can't make Keith do this and we can't let Shiro or Allura make Keith do this either. Well, Allura, Shiro probably wouldn't make Keith do it if he thought that it may hurt him."

They both sat there, flipping through their options, one suggesting some way and the other disputing it.

"We could try to convince them that Red is just faulty. Like turn it off and on again or something."

"We could say that Red was just going through her angsty years."

"We could drop Keith off on a planet a get Yoda to train him."

Some were a bit more far fetched than other were. Just as Pidge was suggesting to make the others believe that space shrooms had gotten into the ventilation and made everyone hallucinate, Keith woke up. "W're 'ome?"

Lance and Pidge both smiled soothingly at him, "Yup, we're home, Keith. We're all okay."

"-Oltron is good?"

Lance nodded, "Yup, Red swooped in and saved us all."

Keith rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and smiled, "'Kay, I tol' her to. She nice to me."

Lance mussed up Keith's hair and said, "That's good, I'm really glad you did that. I'm happy that Red is nice to you. Do you want to ride with her when we go out now or would you prefer to stay with me?"

Keith looked at him like the answer was the clearest thing in the world and why was Lance evening asking that question, "Wit' you -ance. You are my favrit'."

Pidge smacked her hand to her chest in mock betrayal, "Really Keith, I'm not your favorite? Oh! I am wounded!" She swayed in her seat them dramatically slumped to the ground, all the while Keith and Lance were laughing. She peaked her eyes open and groaned, "And you laugh at me too! How much must you hurt me? Oh!"

Lance looked at Keith and shrugged, "Oh well, I guess Pidge is dead, we might as well go leave and get some food from Hunk. If she's dead then we don't need to give her any, more for us!"

Keith looked confused for a second then a wink from Lance cleared everything up, "Oh! Yes, -ance. More for -ance an' me! No for Pidge!"

They began walking away when Pidge jumped up from the ground with a yell, "Hey, wait up, I like food."

Hunk wasn't in the kitchen but they all knew where he kept the leftovers from his meals. After raiding the fridge they took a seat around a small table and began snacking and chatting amongst themselves. For a large part of the chatter, Keith just zoned out, in his head he was going over his most recent English lesson. The most difficult thing for him was pronunciation, in Galranton they didn't have a lot of the sounds that are used often in English, the most noticeable one being 'L'. As he went over the movements he was supposed to be practicing Lance and Pidge were talking about how scruffy Lance had gotten.

"Dude, your hair has gotten so long, when're you gonna cut that?" Pidge chuckled as she shoved a cookie in her mouth.

Lance blushed and brought his hand to his head, "What do you mean? It's fine."

"You need to cut your hair, actually, Keith should probably cut his hair to, it's hanging in his face." Pidge commented.

"What about you?"

Pidge snorted, "Really? My hair is perfect, don't even try to come for me. Beside, Keith needs to cut his hair eventually, it'll be a nice bonding moment."

Lance let out a loud sigh and turned to face Keith, "Hey, bud, do you want me to cut your hair anytime soon?"

Keith shook his head hard and protested, "I don' like to cut my hair! It hurt me! Always cut my head too!"

"We don't need to cut your hair if you don't want it to be cut. You're out of that place now so you're allowed to make your own decisions. However, I want you to know that it won't hurt you and I'll be really careful if we do it. Tell you what," Lance added after seeing Keith's apprehensive expression, "I'll cut my own hair and show you that it won't cut if I'm careful then if after that you still don't want to cut your hair you don't have to."

Keith looked a bit taken aback, still not entirely used to having a choice and being treated like an equal being. They'd never really touched upon the whole hair thing so Keith never before had the assurance that he could control what happened with that. Keith followed Lance back to their room and into their large bathroom.

"Alright Keith, so these are my hair cutting scissors, their sharper and better for hair than other types. We do have to be careful with these cause I don't want a little cut on my neck." Lance explained. He began trimming his hair, he didn't need to cut off that much only a little bit so that he didn't look as shaggy as he had been looking for the past couple days.

Keith's hair was very long and getting a bit unmanageable, Pidge was right about that. It reached down to his chest and tangled easily which meant Keith and Lance both spent a good half-hour combing through and working it to a decent state. It would be much easier if Keith just cut his hair a bit shorter to lessen the intensity of the tangle.

After Lance finished up polishing the hair cut he asked Keith one more time if he wanted a trim. The answer was a slightly more hesitant no. But a no was still a no so Lance respected his decision and went along with it.

They sat and read for a little bit after that, Keith working diligently on his english the whole time. Hunk had jokingly bought him a dictionary as a present to which Keith became so overjoyed about it that it overtook fairy tales as his new favorite book. Anytime they sat down to read Keith would pull out that bad boy and get into it. At the moment he was halfway through the 'C's and still going strong. They were unclear how much of what he was reading he would actually remember later on but he seemed to love the words. 

Lance felt his stomach rumble and looked over at Keith, "I'm going to go eat some lunch, do you want to come with of keep on reading?"

Keith tapped his dictionary and Lance nodded and said a quick goodbye and ran off to go eat some food.

Keith stood up the moment Lance left and headed over to the bathroom. He stared at himself in the mirror and sighed, his hair was all long and shaggy and gross and they were right, he should get a haircut. His Lance did it so easily so why could Keith? Plus that way it would make his hair easier to maintain while also making his Lance happy!

Keith picked up the scissors and began hacking at his hair. It took him a good ten minute but he was very happy with the end result. Keith cleaned up the mess he had made and looked at himself. He'd never been allowed to style his own hair so he never really knew what he would want. However, when he looked at himself in the mirror he couldn't help the huge smile that crept onto his face. He looked good, not exactly gorgeous like his Lance but he looked good and he chose to look that way and it wasn't forced on him by some huge Galra working sloppily with a knife.

Making his way to the kitchen, Keith nervously tugged at his hair. What if Lance didn't like it as much as he did? What if he thought Keith looked dumb or ugly? What if Lance wanted to cut the hair himself and was angry that Keith did it instead? Mustering up his courage, Keith walked into the kitchen.

Pidge was the first one to notice. She gasp and choked on the coffee she had been drinking. Then Hunk who tried to school his expression out of shock. Neither of them had expected Keith to walked into the room with a choppy new haircut, and not only that but a _mullet_. It didn't looked bad on him, if anything he managed to pull it off. Hunk noticed that Keith's ears were pressed back to his head with nervousness and did his best to console him but nothing seemed to make up for their first reaction.

Lance hopped back into the kitchen with a sandwich in his hand and immediately noticed Keith. His jaw dropped in shock and he gasped, "You cut your hair."

Keith began backing away when Lance started hopping up and down, "You cut your hair! I'm so proud of you!"

Lance bounded over and wrapped Keith into a hug before pulling back and examining the newly chopped mullet. "You don't think I ug'y?"

"No! Of course not! I could never think you were ugly. I'm so proud of you for conquering your fear! Oh, Keith. Did you style it yourself or base it off of something or...?" Lance trailed off.

Keith began to feel Lance's excitement and began hopping up and down too, words spilling from his mouth, "I cut it myself and I stydlded it too! I just kept chopping and chopping and chop chop unti' this! You like?"

Lance ruffled Keith hair up, "I love it Keith. You look so cute! Hunk, Pidge, don't you two love it?"

Hunk and Pidge nodded, "Yeah, we love it Keith. You look really nice."

Keith squealed in happiness and bounced onto Lance wrapping his arms and legs around him in a very tight hug. "I so happy! I keep like this!"

Lance chuckled and agreed heavily. "As much as I'd love to just admire your brand new haircut all day, we should eat something. What would new haircut Keith like to eat?"

Keith cocked his head to the side, "New haircu' Kei- Oh, me! I like san'wich."

Lance happily handed Keith one of his sandwich and they got to eating, Lance talking just about non-stop about his great-uncle who was a barber and taught Lance all about how to cut hair. Keith watched him tell the story in absolute awe that Lance was related to someone who could cut hair for a living. In Galran culture, barbers were some of the most respected people which made sense because of how much hair the galra had, styling it was a form of expression and a good stylist was very desired.

They spent the rest of the day like that, exchanging story's, Pidge occasionally making a joke about mullets that Keith didn't really understand and Hunk talking about the time he dyed his hair bright pink on accident. That was a whole new world to Keith that he had the option to change his hair color as well. The possibilities were endless and Keith loved it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We made it to 800 kudos! I'm beyond grateful for all of you guys who have read and liked this story and that really helped push me to come out with this chapter. 
> 
> I've had to take basically a summer long mental health break to prepare for the upcoming school year which is quickly approaching but I'm back now. I still haven't seen to most recent two seasons, just haven't really felt up for it, but writing a nice fluffy chapter is alway a bit therapeutic :) 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter, I've been meaning to incorporate Keith's signature mullet into the story and now, thankfully, it's here! I hope you guys have an absolutely magnificent and fantastic day!


End file.
